Geuzendijk

The Geuzendijk is a centuries-old thoroughfare through the Dutch Campine, which has been fully paved since 1952 and runs from Weert to Budel. This route was used over the centuries as a trade route, church path, postal route and connecting road.

The background to this name lies in the fact that the Weerter Protestants, who were popularly called Geuzen, were not allowed to practice their religion until the French period, since the region around Weert belonged to the Spanish, later the Austrian Netherlands, a situation that ended in 1789. Budel, however, belonged to the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, and after the Peace of Münster all Catholic churches were annexed by the Protestants, so that the Catholics were initially forced to fulfill their religious duties in border churches. Since Budel was a border town, and there were many Protestant border staff living in this place from the north, there was a Protestant congregation there, so that the Protestants from the weert area could also attend the services there. To this end, they had to cover a distance of 12 km via the road from Weert to Budel, which was popularly, and later officially, given the name Geuzendijk. Even after the French period, the Weerter Protestants did not have their own church, because their number was too small. It was not until 1852 that a Reformed congregation was founded, which initially churched in a building at present-day Oelemarkt 12 and whose pastor came from Roermond. Later the number of Protestants in Weert grew, in 1900 they got their own pastor and from 1912 they had their own church building: the Bethel church.

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