Heerlen

Heerlen is a municipality and a town in the southeastern Netherlands and the second biggest city in the province of Limburg.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the 19th century it became a centre for the coal mining industry.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A distinctive building in the city centre is the so-called Glaspaleis (Glass Palace), formerly housing the Schunck department store and now a cultural centre. It is a national monument and listed as one of the 1000 most important buildings of the 20th century.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Municipality: A municipality or "general-purpose district" (compare with: "special-purpose district") is an administrative local area generally composed of a clearly defined territory and commonly referring to a city, town, or village government....

Town: In American English, a town is usually a municipal corporation that is smaller than a city but larger than a village. In some cases, "town" is an alternate name for "city" or "village" (especially a larger village). Sometimes, the word "town" is short for "township."...

Netherlands: The Netherlands (Dutch: Nederland; IPA pronunciation: /"ne:d?rlant/) is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands that is formed by the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.(Dutch: Koninkrijk der Nederlanden). The Netherlands is a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional m...