Venray or Venraij (; ) is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

and a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Limburg Limburg or Limbourg may refer to: Regions * Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium * Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands * Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...

, the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. The municipality of Venray consists of 14 towns over an area of , with 43,494 inhabitants as of July 2016. About 30,000 of those inhabitants live in the city of Venray; the other 13,000 live in one of the 13 surrounding towns.

Populated places

Mental hospitals

In 1905, the Sint Servatius mental hospital for men was built by the

Brothers of Charity The Brothers of Charity are an international religious institute of Brother (Catholic), Religious Brothers and associate members at the service of the people most in need in the field of education and health care. The institute was founded in 1807 ...

. The first patients arrived in 1907. In 1906, the Sint Anna mental hospital for women was built by the

Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary The Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary is a Roman Catholic religious institute founded in Ghent, Belgium. An enclosed religious order, its main apostolate is helping the needy and the sick, inspired by the work of Saint Vincen ...

. The first patients arrived in 1909. In 1969, management of the mental hospitals was transferred to two separate foundations. Both mental hospitals have a continuing impact on Venray from cultural, religious and employment perspectives. Nowadays, both mental hospitals are managed by GGZ Noord- en Midden-Limburg. Venray also hosts one of 12 mental hospitals in the Netherlands, De Rooyse Wissel, that houses people assigned to mental treatment as a court measure.

St. Peter in Chains Church

The St. Peter ad Vincula church in Venray hosts one of the largest late medieval collections of wooden

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

s that survived the

iconoclasm Iconoclasm ()From . ''Iconoclasm'' may also be considered as a back-formation from ''iconoclast'' (Greek: εἰκοκλάστης). The corresponding Greek word for iconoclasm is εἰκονοκλασία, ''eikonoklasia''. is the social belie ...

of the

protestant reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...

in the Netherlands. The church itself was originally built in the 15th century in the

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

style. It was rebuilt after extensive damage following the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Battle of Overloon The Battle of Overloon was fought in the Second World War between Allied forces and the German Army which took place in and around the village of Overloon in the south-east of the Netherlands between 30 September and 18 October 1944. The battle ...

World War II

Towards the end of World War II there were several battles in and around Venray, damaging large parts of the center of Venray. These include the

from 30 September to 18 October 1944, one of the largest tank battles between the Germans and western

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

. Venray town was not liberated until 1945. It has the only German War Cemetery in the Netherlands. 31,598 German soldiers are buried here.

Economy

*Flextronics: Venray hosts

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...

units and

logistics center A logistics center, or depot, is a facility dedicated to logistical operations. A logistics center might be a warehouse, freight forwarder, or a repair depot. The United States Air Force (USAF) is serviced by three air logistics centers (also know ...

s for

Flextronics Flex Ltd. (previously known as Flextronics International Ltd. or Flextronics) is an American Singapore-domiciled multinational manufacturing company. It is the third largest global electronics manufacturing services (EMS), original design ...

*Herbalife: Venray hosts a European

for

Herbalife Herbalife Nutrition Ltd., also called Herbalife International, Inc. (with a U.S. subsidiary called Herbalife International of America) or simply Herbalife, is an American multinational multi-level marketing (MLM) corporation that develops and se ...

. *ModusLink: Venray hosts a major supply chain location for ModusLink *OTTO Work Force: Venray hosts the head-office for OTTO Work Force, a

temp agency Temporary work or temporary employment (also called gigs) refers to an employment situation where the working arrangement is limited to a certain period of time-based on the needs of the employing organization. Temporary employees are sometimes ...

that predominantly provides

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. The term often refers to a professional, skilled worker, or student from an affluent country. However, it may also refer to retirees, artists and ...

workers. *Xerox: Venray hosts a

plant and European

for

Rank Xerox Rank Xerox Limited was formed in 1956 as a joint venture between the Xerox Corporation of United States (a.k.a. Haloid Photographic) and The Rank Organisation of the United Kingdom, to manufacture and market Xerox equipment initially in Europe ...

, later

Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...

. Nowadays, the European

and a Toner and Photoconductor plant remain. In the 1990s Xerox outsourced manufacturing of copier and printers to

. *

Royal Netherlands Air Force The Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF; , "Royal Air Force") is the military aviation branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. It was created in 1953 to succeed its predecessor, the ''Luchtvaartafdeling'' () of the Dutch Army, which was founded ...

: Venray houses

De Peel Air Base Lieutenant General Best Barracks (), formerly De Peel Air Base (), is a Royal Netherlands Army guided missile base in the Netherlands. It has only one, though not actively used, runway. History During World War II in June 1944 the German Luftwaf ...

. In recent decades Venray has made a transition from

to a

third-party logistics Third-party logistics (abbreviated as 3PL, or TPL) is an organization's long-term commitment of outsourcing its distribution services to third-party logistics businesses. Third-party logistics providers typically specialize in integrated opera ...

base. As a consequence many

warehouses A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities, to ...

have been built on industrial estates in recent years.

Small and medium enterprises Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by many national agencies and international organizat ...

and mental

healthcare Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

also continue to play an important role in the local economy. Venray also provides

logistics Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the Consumption (economics), point of consumption according to the ...

through its

Meuse The Meuse or Maas is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a total length of . History From 1301, the upper ...

river harbor in

Wanssum Wanssum is a village in the Dutch province of Limburg. It is located in the municipality of Venray. History The village was first mentioned in 1242 as Wanzem, and means "settlement of Wando or Wanso (person)". Wanssum developed at the confluenc ...

and A73 motorway.

Nature

The western section of Venray, the villages Vredepeel and Ysselsteyn, was reclaimed from the

Peel Peel or Peeling may refer to: Places Australia * Peel (Western Australia) * Peel, New South Wales * Peel River (New South Wales) Canada * Peel Parish, New Brunswick * Peel, New Brunswick, an unincorporated community in Peel Parish * Pee ...

peat bogs in the early 20th century. Parts of the peat bogs remain and have been transferred to a national park. The western section of Venray is also straddled by part of the

Peel-Raam Line 230px, Peel-Raam Line The Peel-Raam Line (Dutch: Peel-Raamstelling) was a Dutch defence line built in 1939 and attacked and conquered on 10 May 1940 by the German forces. The defence line was behind the Maas Line (about 9 km to 21 km ...

, defensive works consisting of a canal and bunkers dating to the

period. Venray, near Geijsteren, also has a forest and sand dune area, that is one of the few locations in the Netherlands that is home to

common juniper ''Juniperus communis'', the common juniper, is a species of small tree or shrub in the cypress family Cupressaceae. An evergreen conifer, it has the largest geographical range of any woody plant, with a circumpolar distribution throughout the coo ...

Notable residents

Rutgerus Sycamber Rutgerus Sycamber or Roger of Venray (b. 1456/57, d. after 1509) was a humanist, music theorist, and a prolific but little-published writer. He was a canon regular of the Augustinian Order based for most of his life at the monastery of Hagen near Wo ...

(late 15th century) humanist,

canon regular The Canons Regular of St. Augustine are Catholic priests who live in community under a rule ( and κανών, ''kanon'', in Greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religiou ...

of the

Order of St. Augustine The Order of Saint Augustine (), abbreviated OSA, is a mendicant religious order of the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1244 by bringing together several eremitical groups in the Tuscany region who were following the Rule of Saint Augustin ...

Godfrey Henschen Godfrey Henschen (also ''Henskens'' or ''Godefridus Henschenius'' in Latin), 21 June 1601 – 11 September 1681, was a Jesuit hagiographer, one of the first Bollandists, from the Spanish Netherlands. Life Henschen was born at Venray, Lim ...

(1601–1681) a Belgian Jesuit hagiographer, one of the first

Bollandists The Bollandist Society (; ) is an association of scholars, philologists, and historians (originally all Jesuits, but now including non-Jesuits) who since the early seventeenth century have studied hagiography and the cult of the saints in Christia ...

Harry Peeters Henricus Franciscus Maria (Harry) Peeters (3 October 1931 – 17 November 2012) was a Dutch historian and psychologist, Emeritus Professor of Historical Psychology at the Tilburg University, and founder dean of the TIAS School for Business and Soc ...

(1931–2012), a historian, psychologist and academic *

Theo van Els Theodorus Johannes Maria "Theo" van Els (14 May 1936 – 4 August 2015)Family notices in ''NRC Handelsblad'', 6 August 2015. was a Dutch academic who served as Rector magnificus of the Radboud University Nijmegen between 1994 and 2000. He was a pr ...

(1936–2015) a professor of applied linguistics *

Louis Sévèke Jean Louis Bernhard Sévèke (Venray, 28 April 1964 – Nijmegen, 15 November 2005) was a Dutch radical left activist, journalist and writer. He was known for his legal action against the Police and the Dutch intelligence service. He was murder ...

(1964–2005) a Dutch radical left activist, journalist, writer and murder victim *

Michelle Courtens The Netherlands was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 with the song "Out on My Own", written by Dirk-Jan Vermeij and André Remkes, and performed by Michelle. The Dutch participating broadcaster, (NOS), selected its entry for th ...

(born 1981), a singer *

Koen Heldens Koen Heldens is a Dutch-born mix engineer international multi-platinum, American Music Award- and Billboard Music Award-winning mixing engineer. Early life and education Originally from the Netherlands, Heldens began music school at the age of ...

(born 1986), mixing engineer

Sport

Peter Winnen Peter Johannes Gertrudis Winnen (born 5 September 1957) is a Dutch former road racing cyclist. He competed at the 1980 Summer Olympics in road racing and finished in 26th place. After the Games he turned professional in 1981. Among his 14 vict ...

(born 1957), a cyclist, winner of Alpe d'Huez * Edward Linskens (born 1968), a football player *

Leopold van Asten Leopold Leonardus Petronella van Asten (born 19 October 1976 in Venray) is a Dutch show jumping equestrian. Van Asten represented the Netherlands at the 2004 Summer Olympics where he took part in the individual jumping competition and the show j ...

(born 1976) a Dutch show jumping equestrian, participated at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

Mark Veens Mark Hermanus Maria Veens (born 26 June 1978 in Venray, Limburg) is a freestyle swimmer from the Netherlands, who competed for his native country at three consequentive Summer Olympics, starting in 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia as a member of the 4× ...

(born 1978), a freestyle swimmer *

Joey Hanssen Joey Hanssen (Venray, 1 July 1991) is a Dutch racing driver. He currently races in the CIK Stars of Karting Series in the KZ2 class. Career history Karting Joey started kart racing competitively in 1997. He raced under the NAB-NFK sanctioning ...

(born 1991), a racing driver *

Mike Teunissen Mike Teunissen (born 25 August 1992) is a Dutch bicycle racing, racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . Career He rode at the 2013 UCI Road World Championships, and was the winner of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships � ...

(born 1992) a Dutch racing cyclist *

Pauliena Rooijakkers Pauliena Rooijakkers (born 12 May 1993) is a road cyclist from the Netherlands, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam . She participated at the 2012 UCI Road World Championships in the Women's team time trial for the team. Major resul ...

(born 1993) a road cyclist

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Populated places in Limburg (Netherlands) Municipalities of Limburg (Netherlands)