Vlodrop-station

Vlodrop-station (Limburgish and town dialect: Vlórp-Statie) is a hamlet in the Dutch province of Limburg. It is located on the German border, about 5 km east of the village Vlodrop.

The hamlet is named after the railway station of Vlodrop, which was located on the Iron Rhine connection between Antwerp and Germany. The large distance to the village meant that the station had little importance for passenger traffic. The location was chosen because the Belgian owners of the railway line could get free land there, and because of the proximity to the border meant that customs officers had extra powers there [Stationsweb, "station Vlodrop", http://stationsweb.brinkster.net/station.asp?station=vlodrop] . The station was bombed in 1944, and never rebuilt.

The Saint Ludwig College, close to the hamlet, was a Franciscan monastery and boarding school. It was built between 1904 and 1909 by Germans, who in the previous years had moved to the Netherlands because of Bismarck's Kulturkampf. After it closed, it became property of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who made it the global headquarters of the Transcendental Meditation movement.

References