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Situation

The municipality of Gemert-Bakel is situated on the west side of the Brabant Peel. It is a rural municipality and with a surface area of 12,336 hectares it is one of the biggest in the Eindhoven region. The municipality consists of the centers Gemert, Bakel, Elsendorp, Handel, Milheeze, De Mortel and De Rips and has around 28,000 inhabitants. Gemert-Bakel is centrally situated within a half an hour drive from Eindhoven, ’s-Hertogenbosch, Nijmegen and Venlo.

The Gemert-Bakel landscape

The Gemert-Bakel landscape is mainly determined by two geological phenomena: the Peel Edge Rift and the Middle Brabant sand ridge. The Peel Edge Rift is a still active disturbance in the subsoil, which runs through via Bakel through the center of Gemert to Esdonk. To the east you have the slowly rising Peel horst, on the west side is the sinking Central Gorge. The Peel Edge Rift is accompanied by a very diverse landscape. The old route from Bakel to Erp is parallel to the Peel Edge Rift and the Central Gorge.

A brief history of Gemert-Bakel

The municipality of Gemert-Bakel exists since 1 January 1997 and was created by the merging of the former municipalities Bakel-en-Milheeze and Gemert. Both former municipalities have their own specific histories, but, as it turns out, used to be connected with each other as well a long time ago.

Gemert

When first visiting Gemert, two things will certainly catch the eye: the castle and the peculiar form of settlement, in which the center of the village is located at the border of the built-up area. Both elements have their own origins and are connected to one another by the exceptional history of Gemert, giving it a unique place in the history of Brabant. A second factor that strongly determined the esteem of Gemert, is the establishment of the German Order. The German Order was originally a spiritual hospital brotherhood, established in the Holy Land in the time of the crusades. In 1198 this brotherhood was turned into an ecclesiastical knighthood, which besides hospital service also performed military service. Duke John was one of the most important people within the knighthood. In the thirteenth century the German Order quickly gained more international prestige. Numerous territories, goods and privileges fell to them. They could appoint their own priests and the Order didn’t fall under any episcopal power. It owed its huge name primarily to the foundation of a sovereign Order State in Prussia. Following Duke Hendrik of Brabant, numerous higher and lower nobles in our area went along. Through the accession of Rutger of Gemert, one of the Lords of Gemert, to the German Order, he supposedly acquired possessions in Gemert, even before 1220. A few decades later, the German Order had at its disposal its "own house", supposedly in Handel, from which its in the meantime increased possessions were managed by a knight commander.

In the course of the thirteenth century, the scattered possessions outside the Order State were subsumed under a separate administrative body. Gemert, together with the remaining possessions in the Southern Netherlands and the neighboring Rhine area, fell under the knighthood Alden Biesen, near Bilzen in Belgian Limburg. Its jurisdiction included some twelve so-called knighthoods, of which Gemert developed into the most important and richest one.

This was preceded by various conflicts with local Lords of Gemert, who saw the German Order, which was becoming richer and more powerful, as a threat to their positions. After all, with the coming and accumulation of property of the German Order, the ‘free manor of Gemert’ became a dual manor, with two benches of Aldermen.

In 1363, frictions and conflicts led to a direct struggle for power which, in 1366, through the agency of the Duke of Brabant, was settled in the advantage of the German Order. With that, the Order obtained absolute power over Gemert. Since then, Gemert took a separate position on the political map of The Netherlands as a Free Sovereign Manor of The German Order.

Around 1400 the German Order began building the castle in the center of Gemert, where the former Lords of Gemert also had their (wooden) castle. With this, a new phase in the history of Gemert commenced. Gemert, the center of the knighthoods, developed into a regional center. With that came the establishment of an independent parish, under patronage of the German Order and loose from the Bakel parish, to which Gemert belonged canonically. This was put in effect in 1437, after which the construction of a new church could begin. Part of this plan was also the acquisition of ecclesiastical tithes and patronage rights in different villages in the immediate and wider surroundings.

In the period of the Reformation and the Counterreformation, the importance of Gemert as a regional spiritual center received a new impulse with the foundation of the Latin School in 1587, more in particular meant as preparatory training for priests. As well as neighboring miniature states, like Megen, the land of Ravenstein and the barony of Boxmeer, Gemert formed an independent enclave within the territory of the Republic of The United Netherlands, where the Catholic religion could still freely develop.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth century, Gemert was, together with Maastricht, the only place in The Netherlands where both the Catholic and the Protestant faith could be freely practiced.

In 1795 the German Order had to make room for new ruler. In 1813, after a period of in turn French, Batavian and again French rule, Gemert entered for good a new political constellation, with the establishment of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The German Order no longer returned to its old rights and possessions. The sovereignty of Gemert had come to a definitive end.

The financial burdens that Gemert dragged along from the past, set it back in the economical advancement following the French period. Still, people managed to pull through. Things gradually started going downhill again in the eighteen forties, in spite of the many good initiatives from individuals and the government. Its unfavorable geographic location when it comes to communications, impeded Gemert and its industry more and more. Like this, Helmond was connected to the South William’s Canal in 1826 and to the national rail network in the sixties. Gemert missed that connection and people made every effort to turn the unfavorable tide, but the decline in the industry and prosperity turn out to be hard to stop. Population declined as well. Even though at the turn of the century new opportunities arose for Gemert, the reconstruction didn’t persevere for good until the fifties.

In those years the village began grow beyond its limits and an extension toward the east and the north took place. Like in many other villages during the postwar reconstruction, a lack of understanding and underestimation of their cultural-historical individual character caused numerous buildings to be demolished. People took example from the new trend of professionalism in the urban architecture, which was a model of vitality and progress. Even though that, in an endeavor to follow the new times, many of the formerly prominent and rich buildings have been lost to progress, nevertheless, still numerous valuable buildings have been preserved. They still are a good example of the exceptional cultural and economical development that Gemert went through and determine to a large extent the atmosphere and the character of the village. Through an active monument policy, the municipality tries to preserve its heritage, so that in the future, the built-up area can still be seen as a home.

Bakel and Milheeze

Around 10.000 BC there was a tundra climate in our country. In the area that now forms Bakel and Milheeze lived the Tjonger tribe. The name is derived from the Frisian river the Tjonger, where some of their tools were found. Finds east and north of Milheeze prove that this prehistoric man also lived in this area. Archeological finds prove it concerns a time in which flint was the pre-eminent material for manufacturing tools and weapons, witness the discovered arrowheads, celts, knives and such. A very important discovery was that of the objects and the belonging waste matter near a pool along the Bakelsedijk. The waste matter indicates that the tools were made on site.

In those days, the area around Bakel must have looked entirely different from the present. The Peel’s enormous marshlands, as is assumed, didn’t come into being until the Tjonger tribe left the area.

It is uncertain when the new inhabitants -for whatever reason- came to the area. We do know that they lived there in the Iron Age, a period that continued until around our era. The presence of the Romans in the region has been proven by the discovery of coins in the center of Bakel.

The toponym Bakel first appears in an act from 714/715. The proof for this is written in a transcript of an act, included in the so-called "Liber Aurus Epternacensis" (the golden book of the Echternach abbey) dating from the end of the twelfth century. The act was drawn up in Bakel ("Bagoloso" in those days).

In 721 Bakel was again mentioned in the specimen of an act included in the same golden book. According to that act, a certain Herelaef, son of Badagar, donated his maternal inheritance "in loco de Baclaos" (in the village of Bakel), consisting of a mansion and garden plus some estates in Deurne and Vlierden, to a church in Bakel. This church was managed by bishop Willibrord. Later on, his name was bound to the church as titular saint. That this saint played an important role in the ecclesiastical development of Bakel and surroundings is shown by the extent to which his name has been kept alive. He is the titular saint of the parishes of Bakel and Milheeze and was depicted on the municipal coat of arms of Bakel. The standard mill, built in 1572, and a primary school in Bakel are named after him. The guild of Bakel, established in 1296, also carries his name as that of its patron.

For a long time, Bakel used to be the center of the spiritual life for the wide surroundings. The church of Bakel acted as a mother church for Deurne, Milheeze and Gemert. Gemert became an independent parish in 1437.

After concluding the Munster Peace Treaty in 1648, Bakel came under the rule of the Protestant Republic of The United Netherlands. From that moment on, only Reformed people were invested with a public office. The Catholic religion was prohibited. Churches, presbyteries and other possessions confiscated. In 1672 the Republic declared war upon France, England, Cologne and Munster. The coming of French troops -they would stay until 1674- gave the Catholics more freedom of religion. They used this freedom to set up churches in barns. As well as in Bakel, where the barn church stayed in use until 1818. A century and a half after the Protestants took possession of the Catholic Church, the parish of Bakel claimed it back. In 1818 their wish was fulfilled and the church could be used for the service again.

In the eighteenth and the nineteenth century the population of Bakel decreased rapidly. The generally poor farmers scattered over the region, were struggling on their poor, hardly fertile land. However, this changed when artificial fertilizer was invented. The government, which initially wasn’t much concerned with rural population, now provided a better drainage system. This led to heaths and marshlands being transformed into fertile land. As a consequence, villages in the Peel like Elsendorp and De Rips developed.

For centuries the existence of the population of Bakel had been at least as pitiful as that of the people in the villages on the poor sands of the Peel region. The most important means of existence were mixed farms and the sale of peat. After WWII Bakel became more and more a commuter residence. The working population mostly travels from Bakel to their work address. The agrarian sector still takes up an important place in the economical life in the municipality of Gemert-Bakel.

Gemert-Bakel, a ‘Glorious’ municipality

The municipality has an important function in the field of recreation, both locally and regionally, and has a lot to offer tourists. Gemert-Bakel is situated in a beautifully rural setting. Its forests, in which the municipality is so rich, are a very nice place to be. The estate "The Stippelberg" which is managed by the Nature Reserves Foundation is open to the public. In the entire municipality there are many walking and cycling opportunities, with signposted routes. It’s also impossible to imagine the municipality without its exuberant sociability.

Gemert

In Gemert there are many places of interest. First and foremost, the magnificent castle, which dates from the Dark Ages. The Tourist Office organizes guided tours of this historical, very important monument in Gemert. Close to the castle is the church of Saint John’s Decapitation. Its construction supposedly started shortly after 1437. The church has wonderful stained windows and still possesses some fifteenth century pieces, among which a sandstone Virgin and a bluestone baptismal font. Many of the historical buildings have been preserved, such as the Latin school from 1891 and the mill The Beehive. In the Farmer’s Union Museum you can see and smell what life was like on a local farm in the year 1900. On the many arterial roads in Gemert, you will find many roadside or niche chapels, the so-called ‘keskes’ or ‘cupboards’. They were meant to protect travelers on their way. Some are recent and others have their origins in a distant past. In the ‘keskes’ along the road the ‘seven sorrows of the Virgin Mary’ are depicted. The Chapel of Mary Magdalene in Esdonk -in the vernacular the ‘little Esdonk chapel’- deserves special mention. Like Handel and De Mortel it was a so-called chapel hamlet, a collective of farmsteads near a devotion chapel. The oldest records date from 1364, the present building dates from 1695. Contrary to the old hamlets Handel and De Mortel it didn’t develop in to a parish. In 1942 a sacristy and a niche for the lying statue of Our Blessed Lord were built on. Devotion developed around the statue, during which nails were sacrificed in order to rid oneself of skin disease.

Bakel

Right in the middle of the center of Bakel you will find the Saint Willibrord Church, built in the fifteenth century. The church was fully restored in 1974 and has been put on the List of National Monuments and Historic Buildings.

The "Bakel Standard Mill", dating from 1752, is a rare type of mill and one of the most beautiful specimens in The Netherlands. Not for nothing a State Monument. In the Neerstreet, we find the museum "De Tolbrug" ("The Toll Bridge"), where old arable tools and a big collection of old appliances are displayed. In the center of the village there are some modern works of art by municipal artists.

Handel

The parish Handel is known as the oldest place of pilgrimage of Maria in North Brabant. Already in 1368 venerations of the Virgin Mary took place. The village draws thousands of pilgrims on a yearly basis. Behind the impressive church, established by the German Order in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, there is a park used for processions dating from 1910. The most important monument in the park is the centuries-old ‘Wonderbare putje’ (‘Miraculous Little Well’), the water of which would have healing effect. In addition, nature lovers will find a Nature Educational Center. This center has plenty eye for nature and is unique in The Netherlands. In Handel you will also find ’t Museumke (‘The Little Museum’), where you can admire handguns, bonnets and clothing from the old days.

Milheeze

The mill "Laurentia" is a very beautiful octagonal ‘bergmolen’ (a type of mill which sits upon a natural or man-made hill, as opposed to a tower mill), which was built in 1893. The mill is on the road from Milheeze to Bakel and is open to the public. The "Holy Willibrord Church" was built with the remains of the "St Anthony’s Abbot Chapel" and was restored in 1964. In the woods between Milheeze and De Rips sand and gravel are won. After the digging the entire area will be converted to one big recreation park.

De Mortel

Also in De Mortel, the scenery is determined by the church, which dates from 1902, with its authentic angelus bell. Anyone who passes through this parish will surely notice the statue of the pig farmer, "The Boar Leader". This statue is one of the many creations from the Gemert artist Toon Grassens. At the border of the built-up area, you will find the saying 'De Mortel een (h)echt dorp' (‘De Mortel a real/close-nit village’), which excellently typifies the village. Many activities take place on the village plaza with its striking octagonal kiosk. De Mortel has varied environs with modern farms, agricultural areas, woods and nature reserves. Foot- and cycle paths run criss-cross through the area. The 'Mortel stroll' is a beautiful cycle route through the village and its environs.

De Rips

In 1875 the sheep farm ‘De Rips’ van sir Huyskes was finished. Besides some wooden and loam huts, this was the only house in the Peel. The reclamations in the Peel started and attracted many inhabitants. Partly thanks to the Dutch Heath Co, large areas were cultivated and forests were planted. It wasn’t until 1921 before Parish De Rips was established. The in that time planted forests now form a beautiful nature reserve which is managed by the Foundation Nature Reserves. De Rips has a lot of characteristic wood worker homes and large farms in a deviant architectural style. Up until 1999 it was assumed that the name De Rips came from a little river with the same name, which flows in the region. Research by sir B. Ploegmakers, supported by the local polder boards, has shown that the name De Rips was indirectly derived from ‘De Ripse Paal’ (‘The Rips Post’). This post was one of the former boundary markers (the oldest map on which this post appears, dates from 1669) and stood nearby the current village. When the municipality of Helmond sold a piece of land to sir Huyskes in 1874, the name De Rips was first mentioned in the deed of sale to denote that particular area. Sir Huyskes subsequently named his territory and his farm ‘De Rips’.

Elsendorp

Elsendorp was created in 1891 as a reclamation village in the Peel on the original De Dompt estate at the edge of the Peel. At the end of the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century, the heaths in this region were reclaimed. Between 1910 and 1912 the Annahoeve was built on De Dompt. This gave the agriculture a boost and in 1926 the Elsendorp parish was established. Named after father Gerlacus van den Elsen, born in Gemert -where these days the Farmer’s Union museum is settled- and among other things founder of the North Brabant Christian Farmer’s Union. The reclamation village attracted a lot of inhabitants from far outside the region. In 1927, a Protestant church and parsonage were also built. In the rural surroundings of Elsendorp De Dompt and the Annahoeve with her drive way with chestnut trees outshine everything qua beauty and size.