King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima Visit Limburg

Today, Thursday October 8, His Majesty King Willem-Alexander and Her Majesty Queen Máxima paid a visit to the former mining region of Limburg.

The visit began in Kerkrade, a municipality in the southeast of Limburg where, at their arrival, the Royal Couple was welcomed in the Town Hall by the Mayor Jos Som and the Governor of the region Theo Bovens. Then the King and the Queen, in the Market Square, visited the D’r Joep monument, a Dutch National Monument made in 1957 to remember the miners.

Later they visited the Museumplein, an ensemble of museums which comprises three sections: Columbus, an earth theater; Cube, a design museum and Continium, a discovery center. The King and Queen officially opened the earth theater that will be opened for the public at the end of October.  At the Schacht Nulland, a former demaniale mine, the Royal Couple met former miners. The mine was closed in August 1969.

Afterwards the King and the Queen went in Heerlen where they visited the Arcus Colleg. During the visit they were informed by the students about how the mining will have a new economic and it was presented the Bau Ausstellung International Parkstad (IBA Parkstad) project, a German approach to urban renewal that was lunched in October 2013 in the municipalities of Heerlen, Kerkrade, Landgraaf, Brunssum, Voerendaal, Simpelveld, Nuth and Onderbanken.

Later the Royal Couple visited the Brightlands Chemelot Campus and the Bright Lands Smart Services Campus focused in the fields of innovative start-ups, innovations and smart services.

In Heerlen the King and the Queen also visited the Zuyd University of Applied Sciences.
The visit ended in Geelen. In the City Hall the Royal Couple was welcomed by the Mayor Sjaar Cox and then they attended a roundtable meeting with local entrepreneurs about the economic opportunities of the region.

The Limburg region was until December 1965 a mining region and the visited was focused on the trasformation of the economy after the closure of the mines.

Filed under The Netherlands
Tagged King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.