Veghel | ||||||||||
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Town and Former municipality | ||||||||||
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Location in North Brabant |
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Coordinates: 51°37′N 5°33′E / 51.617°N 5.550°ECoordinates: 51°37′N 5°33′E / 51.617°N 5.550°E | ||||||||||
Country | Netherlands | |||||||||
Province | North Brabant | |||||||||
Incorporated | 1310 | |||||||||
Market rights | 1719 | |||||||||
Area | ||||||||||
• Town | 78.92 km2 (30.47 sq mi) | |||||||||
• Land | 78.16 km2 (30.18 sq mi) | |||||||||
• Water | 0.76 km2 (0.29 sq mi) | |||||||||
Elevation | 10 m (30 ft) | |||||||||
Population (Municipality, May 2014; Urban area, January 2010; Metro region, January 2014) | ||||||||||
• Town | 37,655 | |||||||||
• Density | 482/km2 (1,250/sq mi) | |||||||||
• Urban | 53,680 | |||||||||
• Urban density | 2,272/km2 (5,880/sq mi) | |||||||||
• Metro region | 161,900 | |||||||||
Demonym(s) | Veghelaar | |||||||||
Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | |||||||||
• Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | |||||||||
Postcode | 5460–5469 | |||||||||
Area code | 0413 | |||||||||
Website | www |
Veghel (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈvɛxəl]) is a town and a former municipality in the southern Netherlands. On 1 January 2017 Veghel, together with Schijndel and Sint-Oedenrode, merged into a new municipality called Meierijstad creating the largest municipality of the province North-Brabant in terms of land area.
The first settlements date back to Roman times and were established near the River Aa. The oldest written record of Veghel dates from 1225. It is a document of the Abbey of Berne, written in Latin on a piece of parchment, and describes several properties owned by the abbey. Among those is an estate located in the settlement of "Vehchele".
In 1310, John II of Brabant granted the inhabitants the right to use common grounds. For some decades in the 16th and 17th century the municipality was ruled by the Lords Van Erp, residing at their castle of Frisselsteijn in Veghel.
In 1648 Veghel became part of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. As a former part of the Duchy of Brabant, Veghel is situated in the Meierij of 's-Hertogenbosch. As a Catholic town, Veghel (like all the other areas of Brabant and Limburg which were transferred to the Netherlands by the Peace of Westphalia) suffered economic and religious oppression from the Protestant Dutch and was part of the military buffer zone of the Dutch Republic.