Godsheide
Coordinates: 50°56′13″N 5°23′06″E / 50.937°N 5.385°E
Godsheide is Flemish-speaking hamlet and Catholic parish within the northeastern corner of the Belgian city of Hasselt, in the province of Limburg. At the end of 2007 Godsheide counted 3,143 inhabitants.
Between the village and the main town of Hasselt there are several large modern developments - the Hasselt golf club, the Grenslandhallen entertainment centre, the Limburg provincial government buildings, and the Kinepolis cinema complex.
Apart from the rest of Hasselt, it is bounded by Diepenbeek on the east, and Bokrijk, a part of Genk, to the north. The parish is divided in northern and southern sections by the waterways and roads which both run east–west through it. The Albert Canal separates the modern main village from a northern section, "Vosseberg", which has access to the main village via two bridges, while the southern extreme of the parish, "Wolske", lies to the south of the Demer and the nearby Universiteitslaan main road. At the southern extremity, Godsheide touches the old steenweg (old main road) between Hasselt and Maastricht, which also runs in an east–west manner.
Godsheide VV is the local soccer club, and there is a local catholic primary school and a scouts group.
Although the modern spelling and standard pronunciation sounds like it means "God's heath" this is not the origin of the name of Godsheide. The original meaning is thought to be shown more clearly by the spelling Goetschey, found on a map from 1549, and the dialect pronunciation of the name, which is Gooètskè: instead of God's heide (heath) the second component was related to modern Dutch scheiding (a separation or dividing). The division being referred to was apparently that between the medieval territory of the County of Loon, which included Hasselt, and Diepenbeek, which was not part of Loon, but rather formed a detached part of various other entities over the centuries, especially the Prince-bishopric of Liège and the Duchy of Brabant.
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