Tessenderlo (; li, Loei) is a
municipality in the
Belgian province of
Limburg. It is where the three Belgian provinces of Limburg,
Flemish Brabant
Flemish Brabant ( nl, Vlaams-Brabant ; french: Brabant flamand ) 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, Haina ...
and
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, meet at the front gate of the
Averbode Abbey. The municipality Tessenderlo encompasses the villages of Tessenderlo proper,
Schoot,
Engsbergen,
Hulst and
Berg. On January 1, 2006, Tessenderlo had a total population of 16,811. The total area is 51.35 km
2 which gives a
population density of 327 inhabitants per km
2. The name ''Tessenderlo'' means "''(the open place in) the forest of the
Taxandrians''".
It is along the
Albert Canal 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. It ...
, the highway between
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, and
Liège
Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège.
The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...
, 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 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.
Notable people
*
Kate Ryan, Belgian singer
*
Chantal Calin, Belgian singer
*
Tia Hellebaut
Tia Hellebaut (; born 16 February 1978 in Antwerp) is a retired Belgian track and field athlete, as well as a chemist, who started out in her sports career in the heptathlon, and afterwards specialized in the high jump event. She has cleared 2.05 ...
, Olympic Champion 2008 Highjump
*
Minus van Looi, writer
References
External links
*
Official website
Municipalities of Limburg (Belgium)
{{LimburgBE-geo-stub