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Amsterdam » The Netherlands » Provinces » North Brabant, The Netherlands
North Brabant, The Netherlands
North Brabant (Noord Brabant) is a South central mainland province of the Netherlands. The capital of the North Brabant province is the town of 's-Hertogenbosch (or shorter: Den Bosch). Brabant has been for centuries one of the provinces of The Netherlands, a theater of wars with Spain in the 17th century. When after the fall of Napoleon United Kingdom of the Netherlands has been created, which incorporated Belgium and Luxemburg, the province of Brabant has been divided into Northern and Southern part. When Belgium separated from the Netherlands in 1830, only the province of North Brabant remained with the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Today North Brabant is one of the biggest and most populated Dutch provinces. With big cities like Eindhoven, Breda, Tilburg, and Den Bosch, with several important industries like electronic giant Phillips, big truck company DAF, textile, and shoe factories and food processing industries, North Brabant is a vital area for the Dutch economy.
For a visitor the city of 's-Hertogenbosch (short name: Den Bosch) with its beautiful, old and busy with shops and restaurants center is a place to visit. Den Bosch has also several interesting buildings as Town Hall (Stadhuis), Saint John (Sint-Jan) cathedral and good contemporary art galleries. The famous painter Hieronymus Bosch (Jeroen Bosch, 1450-1516) was born and lived in the city. His statue stands on the Market square.
The surroundings of Den Bosch are nice for a tour, just to see the landscape of the province with its small villages, windmills (near Heusden), several interesting castles (Bergen op Zoom, Heeze, Heezwijk, Heusden, Helmond, Gemmert).
Eindhoven is a big industrial city. Its modern art museum - Van Abbemuseum, has an interesting collection with an interesting portrait by Pablo Picasso "The Green Lady" (1909).
An interesting old city of Willemstad is an important water sports center. It also has an interesting hunting lodge of the Prince Maurits (built in 1623) now a museum called Het Mauritshuis (as the famous museum in Den Haag).
North Brabant is province of varied landscape and many attractions, therefore is often visited by the Dutch themselves.