Geleen

Geleen is a city of 33,960 inhabitants in Limburg, the Netherlands. It forms part of the municipality of Sittard-Geleen.

The remains of the oldest prehistoric farms of the Netherlands were found here. Geleen is sited along the river Geleenbeek, is a right tributary to the river Meuse.

The soccer club Fortuna '54 was the former soccer club of Geleen. Also the Rock festival Pinkpop has its roots in Geleen. This festival was held on a horse race track, with a bad reputation. (The gravel caused black dust on dry days and a black mud on rainy days.) The nearby swimming pool was popular with some of the artist that enjoyed themselves backstage.

Until the end of the 19th century, Geleen was a small village. The exploitation of coal mines in the area (the State-owned coal mine "Maurits", the biggest in Europe, was located in Geleen) brought a fast population increase. The mines were closed in the 1960s and 1970s, but the State mining company DSM (privatised in 1989) remained active in Geleen, now purely as a chemicals producer.In July 2002, DSM's petrochemicals business, located on the manufacturing locations in Geleen and Geilenkirchen (Germany) were acquired by SABIC Europe.

Geleen is well known for the yearly town fair (one week after Whitsun) and its sports-center Glanerbrook.

Its geographical data are:
*50°58' Latitude North
*5°49' Longitude East
*61 meter Altitude
*UTC+1 Timezone