Margraten (; ) is a village and a former

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' ...

in the southeastern part of 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 ...

. On 1 January 2011 this former municipality merged with a neighbouring one, which resulted in the new Eijsden-Margraten municipality.

Preceding developments

Until 1982 the municipality with this name comprised, beside Margraten, the hamlets Groot Welsden, Klein Welsden, Termaar and 't Rooth. In 1982 this municipality was extended with a number of neighbouring municipalities: Cadier en Keer, Mheer, Noorbeek and Sint Geertruid. Also the village Scheulder, that until then was part of another municipality, was added. As a result, from 1982 until 2011 the municipality of Margraten comprised the following population centres, that from 2011 on are all part of nowadays municipality of Eijsden-Margraten.

American Cemetery

At Margraten the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial is situated. Established in 1960, it is Europe's third largest war cemetery for unidentified soldiers who died in

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 ...

. 8,301 soldiers are buried there under long rows of white crosses and stars of David. All graves are adopted by locals, who attend the graves and lay flowers. This cemetery is the final resting place for, among others, Lt. Colonel Robert G. Cole, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for action during the Normandy campaign in June 1944. President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

visited the cemetery on 8 May 2005, the first American president to do so.

Gallery

File:002. Netherlands American Cemetery, Gräberreihen.jpg, Netherlands American Cemetery File:Margraten-Wegkruis Termaar-Gen Hof.JPG, One of the many typical "road crosses" in this Roman Catholic region File:TRoeëtGans.jpg, Neighbourhood 't Rooth

People

* Jean Bessems (1945), (Cadier en Keer),

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . Cue sports, a category of stic ...

; worldchampion artistic in 1985 en 1988. *

Pierre Lardinois Pierre Joseph Lardinois (13 August 1924 – 16 July 1987) was a Dutch politician and diplomat of the Catholic People's Party (KVP) and agronomist. Lardinois applied at the Wageningen Agricultural College in June 1942 majoring in Agronomy. D ...

(1924-1987), (Noorbeek), politician * Fons van Wissen (1933-2015), (Margraten),

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

(30 caps)

References

Municipalities of the Netherlands disestablished in 2011 Former municipalities of Limburg (Netherlands) Populated places in Limburg (Netherlands) Eijsden-Margraten {{LimburgNL-geo-stub