Nederweert, Weert

Weert, or Wieërt as the Limburgers call it, is"the Gateway to Limburg\\\". The place, which received city rights in 1414, is located on the border of North Brabant and Belgium. The route runs largely through the Kempen-Broek nature reserve. This area has a mysterious history of smugglers and goat riders. Now this area is the living space of water sniffers, flat bellies and four-spotted ones. Kempen-Broek is limitlessly versatile.

When cycling through Weert, you cannot miss Nederweert. In the course of the fourteenth century, the town separated from Weert and for the first time received its own aldermen and seigneury. In the Middle Ages, Nederweert belonged to the Prince-Bishopric of Liège and when the Peace of Utrecht in 1713 put an end to the Spanish war of succession and incorporated Nederweert into the Netherlands, the inhabitants were not at all happy about this. In 1794, Nederweert was conquered by Napoleon, but when he fell, the municipality of Nederweert, now named, was part of the province of Limburg, to which it still belongs.

The route runs past the Sluis 15 hydroelectric power station in Roeven, a hamlet in the municipality of Nederweert. The power station was built in 1919 on behalf of Rijkswaterstaat to generate electricity for Sluis 15 and the nearby service residences. The power plant was shut down in 1949, but after a renovation in 1993 the building became a national monument. In 2013, the block-shaped central unit generates green energy.

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

The second and last beautiful mill that you can view is the St. Anna in Weert. The flour 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 milled. 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 after 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 how it does its work with one pair of grinding stones.