13 Facts About Mechelen

Mechelen is a city and municipality in the province of Antwerp in the Flemish Region of Belgium.

Mechelen is one of Flanders' prominent cities of historical art, with Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Ghent, and Leuven.

In 1473 Charles the Bold moved several political bodies to the city, and Mechelen served as the seat of the Superior Court until the French Revolution.

Mechelen compensated for this by increasing prominence in the religious arena: in 1559 it was proclaimed the Archdiocese of Mechelen, seat of religious authority over the territory that would eventually become Belgium.

Mechelen retained further relevance as the Great Council of Mechelen remained the supreme court of the territory until the French Revolutionary Wars.

Related searches

In 1835, the first railway on the European continent linked Brussels with Mechelen, which became the hub of the Belgian railway network.

Mechelen used to have its own newspaper called de Krijgstrompet, which was the official newspaper of the army.

Since 1995, a subscribers' quarterly, De Mecheleir, shows old photographs of Mechelen and has stories on the local history, as well as a few columns written mimicking the dialect, for which there is no standard spelling.

Mechelen was at the heart of the revival of the carillon in the early 20th century, and hosts its principal school in the world to this day.

Mechelen has a narrow temperature range between seasons for its high latitude, despite its inland position.

Mechelen contains the Royal Carillon School "Jef Denyn" where carillonneurs come from around the world to study the carillon and to play the instrument.

City of Mechelen uses ANPR cameras since September 2011 to check all inbound and outbound cars against a database of stolen, non-insured and cars listed for other reasons.

Mechelen was one of the first cities in Belgium to use ANPR on this scale.