Meerlo, Broekhuizenvorst and Swolgen

Meerlo is a village in the municipality of Horst aan de Maas. The village has several historic buildings, such as the former castle farm of the Kasteel van Meerlo and the former mayor's house Huize Meerlo. There is also a burial mound from around 700 BC. This suggests that the area has been inhabited for a very long time. The village is intersected by the Groote Molenbeek.

The Groote Molenbeek is a beautiful lowland stream of about 35 km long. The stream starts in Grashoek and the stream flows through an elongated nature reserve between the Schatberg and Sevenum. This beautiful stream valley, appropriately called the Molenbeekdal, consists of poplar forest, a heavy alder swamp forest and small-scale landscapes with swamp scrub and flowery wet grasslands.

Broekhuizenvorst is a village in the north of Limburg. The village was located in Upper Gelre and was part of the Kessel office. The Spanish king who owned the seigneury here sold it to the States of Guelders in 1655 because of money problems. Broekhuizenvorst was occupied by the Prussians in 1713 and formally became Prussian. This remained the case until the French conquered the region in 1794. During the Belgian struggle for independence in 1830, this area chose to join Belgium. Broekhuizenvorst has been officially located in the Netherlands since 1866.

Swolgen is a picturesque hamlet surrounded by nature. Beautiful heathland, vast forests and fens are part of the surroundings of Swolgen.

In between these areas you will find a lot of agricultural land. Asparagus fields and mushroom farms are particularly common here. The village also contains a number of monuments such as Hoeve de Gun, the first mention of which dates from 1321, and the Sint Lambertuskerk, which was built at the beginning of the thirteenth century.