Tessenderlo (; ) is 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 Belgian province of

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 ...

. It is where the three Belgian provinces of Limburg,

Flemish Brabant Flemish Brabant ( ; ) is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on (clockwise from the North) the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, Liège, Walloon Brabant, Hainaut and East Flanders. Flemish Brabant also ...

and

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

meet at the front gate of the

Averbode Abbey Averbode Abbey is a Premonstratensian abbey situated in Averbode, in the municipality Scherpenheuvel-Zichem (Flemish Brabant), in the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels in Belgium. It was founded about 1134, suppressed in 1797, and reestablished i ...

. The municipality Tessenderlo encompasses the villages of Tessenderlo proper, Schoot, Engsbergen,

Hulst Hulst () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and city in southwestern Netherlands in the east of Zeelandic Flanders. History Hulst received City rights in the Netherlands, city rights in the 12th century. Hulst Siege of Hulst ...

and

Berg Berg may refer to: People *Berg (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) * General Berg (disambiguation) * Berg Ng (born 1960), Hong Kong actor * Berg (footballer, born 1963), Ninimbergue dos Santos Guerra, Brazilian footba ...

. On January 1, 2006, Tessenderlo had a total population of 16,811. The total area is 51.35 km² which gives a

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

of 327 inhabitants per km². The name ''Tessenderlo'' means "''(the open place in) the forest of the Taxandrians''". It is along the

Albert Canal The Albert Canal (, ; , ) is a canal located in northeastern Belgium, which was named for King Albert I of Belgium. The Albert Canal connects Antwerp with Liège, and also the Meuse river with the Scheldt river. It also connects with the Des ...

and the

European route E313 The European route E 313 is a road in Europe and a part of the United Nations International E-road network. Approximately long, it connects the Belgian port city of Antwerp to Liège, the commercial and industrial centre of Wallonia. I ...

, the highway between

and

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

, one of the reasons it was the place for the first Belgian "Industrial Zone of National Importance" in the 1960s. Tessenderlo was the scene of an infamous industrial disaster during World War II, when a stock of 150 tonnes of

ammonium nitrate Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a white crystalline salt consisting of ions of ammonium and nitrate. It is highly soluble in water and hygroscopic as a solid, but does not form hydrates. It is predominantly us ...

at the chemical plant of ''Produits Chimiques de Tessenderloo'' (now

Tessenderlo Group Tessenderlo Group is a multinational industrial group that was founded in Tessenderlo, Belgium, in 1919 as Produits Chimiques de Tessenderloo. The group's areas of business include the production, trading and marketing of crop nutrients and crop ...

) - located near the centre of town - exploded on April 29, 1942, killing 189 people at the plant and in the town. Tessenderlo is part of a small western zone of Limburg where the local dialect is not the Limburgian dialect, but

Brabantic Brabantian or Brabantish, also Brabantic or Brabantine (, , ), is a dialect group of the Dutch language. It is named after the historical Duchy of Brabant, which corresponded mainly to the Dutch province of North Brabant, the Belgian province ...

Notable people

Kate Ryan Kate Ryan (born Katrien Verbeeck, 22 July 1980) is a Belgian singer and songwriter, and the winner of a World Music Award. She began her singing career in 2001 and later found fame with a string of dance hits. These included covers, mostly of ...

, Belgian singer * Chantal Calin, Belgian singer *

Tia Hellebaut Tia Hellebaut (; born 16 February 1978) is a Belgian former track and field athlete. She started out in her sports career in the heptathlon, and afterwards specialized in the high jump event. She has cleared 2.05 metres both indoors and outd ...

, Olympic Champion 2008 Highjump *

Minus van Looi The plus sign () and the minus sign () are mathematical symbols used to denote positive and negative functions, respectively. In addition, the symbol represents the operation of addition, which results in a sum, while the symbol represents ...

, writer

References

External links

*
Official website
Tessenderlo-Ham Former municipalities of Limburg (Belgium) Populated places in Limburg (Belgium) {{LimburgBE-geo-stub