Nederweert, Weert

Weert, or Wieërt as the Limburgers call it, is"the Gate of Limburg\\\". The place, which received city rights in 1414, is located on the border of North Brabant and Belgium. A large part of the route runs through the Kempen-Broek nature reserve. This area has a mysterious history of smugglers and goat riders. Now this area is the habitat of water sniffles, flat bellies and four-spots. Kempen-Broek is limitlessly versatile.

You cannot skip Nederweert on a bike ride through Weert. In the course of the fourteenth century, the town separated from Weert and for the first time got its own aldermen's bench and fiefdom. In the Middle Ages, Nederweert belonged to the Prince-Bishopric of Liège and when the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 put an end to the Spanish succession war and Nederweert was part of the Netherlands, the inhabitants were not happy at all. In 1794, Nederweert was conquered by Napoleon, but when he fell, the now named municipality of Nederweert was assigned to the province of Limburg, to which it still belongs.

The route passes the Sluis 15 hydroelectric power plant in Roeven, a hamlet in the municipality of Nederweert. The power plant was built in 1919 by order of Rijkswaterstaat to generate electricity for Sluis 15 and the nearby staff residences. The power plant was shut down in 1949, but after a refurbishment in 1993 the building became a national monument. In 2013, the block-shaped central generates green electricity.

A few hundred meters further you can visit the windmill Windlust, if you have made an appointment for this. The belt mill was built in 1872, but suffered heavy damage during the Second World War. German troops set the mill on fire in 1944 and the mill remained damaged until a notary's office bought the building in 1979 and had it restored. In 1993 the repair work was completed and the mill was ready for grinding. Since the municipality bought the mill in 2001, grain has been ground on a voluntary basis with the Windlust with one pair of grinding stones. This mill is also used as an oil crusher.

The second and last beautiful windmill you can view is the St. Anna in Weert. The corn mill from 1911 was built with parts from the demolished Clercx mill, so that farmers from the area no longer had to travel so far to have their grain ground. The mill was also equipped with a suction gas engine, so that work could continue when there was no wind. In 1931 the mill was named after the wife of the miller Clijsters, who was called Anna and Sint-Anna and the mill was used until the mid-twentieth century. When the mill is running, you can take a look inside to see how the mill has been restored and does its job with one pair of grinding stones.