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Tessenderlo

Tessenderlo
Municipality
Chemical plant and rail yard in Tessenderlo
Chemical plant and rail yard in Tessenderlo
Flag of Tessenderlo
Flag
Coat of arms of Tessenderlo
Coat of arms
Tessenderlo is located in Belgium
Tessenderlo
Tessenderlo
Location in Belgium
Coordinates: 51°04′N 05°05′E / 51.067°N 5.083°E / 51.067; 5.083Coordinates: 51°04′N 05°05′E / 51.067°N 5.083°E / 51.067; 5.083
Country Belgium
Community Flemish Community
Region Flemish Region
Province Limburg
Arrondissement Hasselt
Government
 • Mayor Fons Verwimp (sp.a)
 • Governing party/ies sp.a, OpenVLD, SPiL
Area
 • Total 51.35 km2 (19.83 sq mi)
Population (1 January 2016)
 • Total 18,403
 • Density 360/km2 (930/sq mi)
Postal codes 3980
Area codes 013
Website www.tessenderlo.be

Tessenderlo is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg. It is where the three Belgian provinces of Limburg, Flemish Brabant and Antwerp meet at the front gate of the Averbode Abbey. The municipality Tessenderlo encompasses the villages of Tessenderlo proper, Schoot, Engsbergen, Hulst and Berg. On January 1, 2006, Tessenderlo had a total population of 16,811. The total area is 51.35 km² which gives a population density of 327 inhabitants per km².

It is along the Albert Canal and the European route E313, the highway between Antwerp and Liège, one of the reasons it was the place for the first Belgian "Industrial Zone of National Importance" in the 1960s.

Tessenderlo was the scene of an infamous industrial disaster during World War II, when a stock of 150 tonnes of ammonium nitrate at the chemical plant of Produits Chimiques de Tessenderloo (now Tessenderlo Chemie) - located near the centre of town - exploded on April 29, 1942, killing 189 people at the plant and in the town.

Tessenderlo is part of a small western zone of Limburg where the local dialect is not the Limburgian dialect, but Brabantic.



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Wikipedia

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