South Limburg mineral landscape

The landscape of the Eastern Mining Region is still heavily influenced by its mining past, even though coal extraction ended on December 31, 1974, with the closure of the Oranje-Nassau I mine in Heerlen. Here, you can recognize the "mining colonies." These are small villages where miners and other mine workers lived. When it became clear at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century that large numbers of workers were needed for coal extraction, churches and industrialists feared that these workers would become socialist. Therefore, the mining colonies were set up as small villages, separated by plots of agricultural land. In accordance with the pillarization, people from the same church were housed together in the neighborhood. As a result, the Eastern Mining Region consists of many smaller cores, while the total population and population density are very high. The Western Mining Region was built around the State Mine Maurits. The Western Mining Region includes, among others, the cores of Geleen, Sittard, Beek, Stein, and Schinnen. Schinnen is more rural in nature and serves as a buffer zone between the Western Mining Region and the Eastern Mining Region.

Dromos