Tielen

Tielen is a village in the province of Antwerp in Flanders, Belgium. It is part of the municipality of Kasterlee. The nearest town is the neighbouring town of Turnhout. Other neighbouring villages are Vosselaar, Lichtaart, Poederlee, Lille and Gierle.

The borders of Tielen are marked by two rivers: The Aa and the Kaliebeek. Almost one third of the village is still covered with pine-woods, heath and swamps. Typical for the Kempen area.

The rest of this 1.371 hectare village is mostly used for residential and agricultural purposes.

With not more than 3,900 inhabitants (3886 - 2009-01-01), Tielen still has a strong community even though in the last 50 years urbanization has doubled the population as shown below.

19th century

20th century until unitement of municipalities

The largest part of the inhabitants are upper middle class nowadays, but through history, the largest part of the inhabitants were poor farmers.

The most famous inhabitant of Tielen was Baron Flor Peeters (an important organist). Less famous is the bishop of Ghent Lucas Van Looy.

The village has a small center which is triangular. It has a 19th-century church, an old railway station and a beautiful town hall (nowadays the old town hall, since Tielen became a part of Kasterlee in 1977).

Other important buildings in Tielen are the 12th century watermill and the 15th-century castle (Tielenhof), which was the home of the lords of Tielen and its neighbouring village Gierle until the French Revolution.

People visit this village to go walking or bike-riding in nature and to enjoy the countryside.

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Wikipedia