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Groesbeek

Groesbeek
Town and former municipality
Church in Groesbeek
Church in Groesbeek
Flag of Groesbeek
Flag
Coat of arms of Groesbeek
Coat of arms
Highlighted position of Groesbeek in a municipal map of Gelderland
Location in Gelderland (municipality of Groesbeek before 2015)
Coordinates: 51°47′N 5°56′E / 51.783°N 5.933°E / 51.783; 5.933Coordinates: 51°47′N 5°56′E / 51.783°N 5.933°E / 51.783; 5.933
Country Netherlands
Province Gelderland
Municipality Berg en Dal
Area
 • Total 44.14 km2 (17.04 sq mi)
 • Land 44.14 km2 (17.04 sq mi)
 • Water 0.00 km2 (0.00 sq mi)
Elevation 34 m (112 ft)
Population (February 2017)
 • Total 18,891
 • Density 428/km2 (1,110/sq mi)
Demonym(s) Groesbekenaar, Groesbeker
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Postcode 6560–6564, 6570–6572
Area code 024
Website www.groesbeek.nl

Groesbeek (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɣruzbeːk]) is a town and former municipality in the province of Gelderland, the Netherlands. In January 2015 the former municipality merged with Millingen aan de Rijn and Ubbergen. The larger area was known as Groesbeek until January 2016, when its name was changed to Berg en Dal.

Groesbeek is named after a small stream called the Groesbeek, (beek means stream or brook in Dutch), which, in its original form, doesn't exist anymore. Hills and forests surround the town, and because of this, Groesbeek was isolated in the past, with a close community and a strong dialect.

Groesbeek and Kranenburg are situated on the banks of the Groesbeek, a small stream in the Groesbeek valley, a large valley between the Nijmeegse heuvelrug and Reichswald. The Groesbeek valley was carved out by glaciers during the Saale glacial, marking the southernmost expansion of ice-age glaciers in the Netherlands. The hills surrounding the valley in which Groesbeek lies are technically the terminal moraines of those glaciers, but in contrast to the hills in the central and eastern Netherlands, these hills are rising by 0.5-0.8 mm/year due to tectonic uplift.

Due to this, the topography is much more varied here than in other higher grounds with similar origins in the Netherlands. Finally, during the Younger Dryas stadial, large amounts of loess were deposited in the valley, making it extremely fertile, while the hills around it are composed to this day of sandy loam unsuitable for intensive agriculture, so that the area has been covered with thick forests to this day. This contributed to the isolation of the area, especially considering the extent of the forests in the Middle Ages was much larger than today. The isolation of the valley was only alleviated by the arrival of the railway in 1865 and finally lifted in the interbellum by the construction of a high capacity paved road to nearby Nijmegen.


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