Sint-Michielsgestel

Infobox Settlement
official_name = Sint-Michielsgestel

---

mapsize = 280px
subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = Netherlands
subdivision_type1 = Province
subdivision_name1 = North Brabant
area_footnotes = (2006)
area_total_km2 = 59.89
area_land_km2 = 58.97
area_water_km2 = 0.93
population_as_of = 1 January 2007
population_note = Source: CBS, [http://statline.cbs.nl/ Statline] .
settlement_type = Municipality
population_total = 27894
population_density_km2 = 473
timezone = CET
utc_offset = +1
timezone_DST = CEST
utc_offset_DST = +2

Sint-Michielsgestel (pronunciation|222 Sint-Michielsgestel.ogg) is a municipality and a town in the southern part of the Netherlands.Sint-Michielsgestel is located directly south of 's-Hertogenbosch, the capital of North Brabant province. Its name refers to archangel St. Michael.

Population centres

*Berlicum
*Den Dungen (nl)
*Gemonde (nl)
*Sint-Michielsgestel
* Smaller townships, also part of Sint-Michielsgestel, are:Besselaar, Doornhoek, Haanwijk (nl), Hal, Halder (nl), De Bus, De Hogert, De Loofaart, Heikantse Hoeve, Hersend, Hezelaar, Hoek, Kerkeind, Laar, Maaskantje (nl), Middelrode (nl), Nijvelaar, Plein, Poeldonk (nl), Ruimel, Tielse Hoeve, Wielsche Hoeven, Wamberg (nl) and Woud.

Contemporary Sint-Michielsgestel

Major employer in the town of Sint-Michielsgestel is Viataal (nl) , a resource center for sensory and communicative disabled people formerly known as "Institute for the deaf and hearing impaired" called Instituut voor Doven (nl) .
Most inhabitants are commuters as there is little to none industry in town.
The river Dommel , which flows from a well in Belgium to the river Maas in The Netherlands, divides the town in two parts.
The present municipality Sint-Michielsgestel was founded in 1996, by merging Sint-Michielsgestel (est. 1314), Den Dungen (est. 1810) and Berlicum (est. 1238).
The complete village of Gemonde, which till then partly belonged to Boxtel, was added to Sint-Michielsgestel too.

History

Archeological finds near the township of Halder proved that this area was already inhabited during the Roman era : thousands of Roman coins were found in 1962 not far from the Nieuw Herlaer castle.
These and other local archeological finds are now on display in the Museum of Antiquities at Viataal , visit address:
Theerestraat 42 in Sint-Michielsgestel, tel# [phone].
Sint-Michielsgestel was named after the "high and dry sandy land" (=Gestel) and their catholic church dedicated to archangel St. Michael.
Its name was first mentioned when estates or heerlijkheden (nl) Herlaer and Gestel were joined in approx. 1314 AD (maybe even earlier but there is no written documentation prior to that time).
The estate of Herlaer already was mentioned in 1142 AD by name as being the estate of Dirck, Monarch of Herlaer.

The klein seminarie (nl) Beekvliet (nl) was founded in 1815 in the town of Sint-Michielsgestel. During World War II this facility was used as prison-camp, along with the grootseminarie (nl) in Haaren. On 4 May 1942 the Germans imprisoned 460 Dutch men in Beekvliet.
All prisoners were politically involved or otherwise important to the Dutch people. Amongst them were writers Simon Vestdijk and Anton van Duinkerken (nl). Political prisoners were Wim Schermerhorn (Prime Minister 1945-1946), Willem Banning (nl), Pieter Geyl and Jan Eduard de Quay (nl), all post-war politicians.
Currently the Gymnasium Beekvliet (nl) is a renowned College (Dutch:"zelfstandig gymnasium") with over 800 students.

External links

* [http://www.sint-michielsgestel.nl/index.php?id=183 Official Website Sint-Michielsgestel]
* [http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichelin/gbr/dyn/controller/mapPerformPage?strCP=&strLocation=Sint-Michielsgestel&strCountry=285 Location of Sint-Michielsgestel - Michelin Map]
* [http://www.ngw.nl/s/sintmich.htm International Civic Heraldry (nl)]
* [http://www.kasteleninnederland.com/kasteeldetails.php?id=919 Nieuw Herlaer, Dutch Medieval Castle (nl)]
* [http://www.mvanoorschot.nl/sint_michielsgestel.htm Sint-Michielsgestel historical pictures (nl)]
* [http://www.viataal.nl Website Viataal, f.k.a. Instituut voor Doven]