Hauset

The panorama board Hauset is outside the village at the so-called 'shell cross' on the Asteneter Strasse. From there, there is a great view out over the foothills of the Herver Land to the point where the borders of three countries converge: Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. The hiking trail 'Around the St. Rochus Chapel' takes you straight past the panorama board.

The Herver Land is in the north of the Province of Liège and marks the transition from the Belgian Ardennes to the Dutch Heuvelland. The hilly landscape is characterised by pastures and orchards, framed in turn by typical hedgerows. The village of Hauset is in the eastern foothills of the Herver Land. As well as the pastures, woods made up of a mosaic of deciduous and coniferous trees are typical of the area around Hauset. On the pastures of the region there is a tradition of farming with dairy cattle. The area has that circumstance to thank for its nickname 'butterländchen' ('butter country').

The 'shell cross' at Prester originates from 1757 and is one of the oldest wayside crosses in the Eupen area. It has a shell-shaped cavity in the middle to thank for its name. The cross probably also served as a station for the Corpus Christi processions which, in the 18th and 19th centuries, went from Eynatten via the St. Rochus Chapel and Prester back to Eynatten.

The Eyneburg was built on a hill high up above the Göhl. It is one of the few hilltop castles in the former Duchy of Limburg. The name Eyneburg or Eyneberghe comes from a family to whom this manor house belonged in the 13th century. The name 'Emmaburg', used for the complex in the vernacular, goes back to a legend according to which a daughter of Charlemagne, Emma, lived there for a time. However, this association, not tenable in historical terms, was not made until the 19th century. Today the Eyneburg is privately owned. Its valuable interior was auctioned off in 1958.

The Prester bridge, strikingly painted in red, was built from 2004 to 2007 for the passage of the high-speed train TGV. It is part of the high-speed line between Aachen and Brussels, and with a height of 30 metres and a length of 135 metres, it is a true giant in steel.

The village of Hauset lies directly on the Belgian-German border. During its history the country to which it belonged has often changed: in the 800 years of its existence, the village has been part of the Duchy of Limburg, France (in the Napoleonic era), Prussia, and then finally the Kingdom of Belgium, into which it was incorporated in 1922. Today, with its green surroundings, Hauset lures many inhabitants from nearby Aachen. Apart from that, the hilly landscape of woods and meadows is an El Dorado for hikers. The historical village centre of Hauset is characterised by numerous buildings in rough stone. And there is also the St. Rochus Chapel, built in 1650 after the end of the great plague epidemic. Like the neo-Gothic Parish Church of St. Rochus, built in 1858, it is dedicated to the patron saint of plague victims. The impressive van Weersth estate from the 18th century, with its rare half-timbered facade, is another jewel in the historical village centre of Hauset.

With an overall length of 1107 metres and a height of 52 metres, the Göhl valley viaduct spans the Göhl valley near Moresnet. For some time, it was the longest bridge in the Belgian rail network. The viaduct is part of the connection between the German Ruhr and the port in Antwerp. During the German occupation of Belgium in the First World War, it was built by order of the German military authorities. Approximately 14,000 labourers and prisoners of war were deployed in its construction. Many of them failed to survive the strenuous, hazardous work. The shell was completed in the unimaginably short time of seven months. In the Second World War, the viaduct was destroyed by Belgian soldiers in 1940 in an attempt to make it more difficult for German troops to advance. It was repaired when German occupation began again, but destroyed anew in 1944 by German soldiers, this time to make it more difficult for the allied troops to advance. Towards the end of the 20th century, about 70% of the goods traffic between the port in Antwerp and Germany was using this viaduct. Today, some 80-100 goods trains per day go over it, mostly at night.

The 'Hammer Bridge' crosses the Göhl, which rises at the Belgian-German border near Eynatten-Lichtenbusch and flows into the Meuse in the Netherlands near Meerssen. This impressive bridge is named 'Hammer' after the place where it was built. It was originally 220 metres long, almost 40 metres high and consisted of 17 two-storey brick-lined arches. Between 1841 and 1843, it was built with more than 8 million bricks and connected the railway line from Aachen to Cologne with Liège. That connection was the first cross-border railway line in Europe. On 10 May 1940 the bridge was blown up by Belgian border guards to stop German troops from moving in. Eight Belgian soldiers died in that action. After the Reichsbahn had repaired the bridge, it was destroyed for the second time during the Second World War, this time by German troops aiming to stop the progress of allied soldiers. After the end of the war, the Hammer Bridge was reconstructed from 1945 to 1948 as a steel bridge on the old stone foundations. In 1998, however, that structure had to make way for a new one, over which the high-speed train THALYS now runs at up to 160 km/h from Germany to Belgium and then on to France or England.

At the border triangle, the borders of Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands meet. In the times of Neutral-Moresnet, indeed, it wasn't three borders that met here, but four. At the same time, at 323 metres above sea level, the point where these borders meet is the highest elevation on the mainland of the Low Countries. The Baudouin Tower marks it on the Belgian side. There, a glass elevator takes visitors up to 50 metres. The panoramic view from the lofty platform on the tower enables them to look far out into all three countries. The border triangle is the starting point for many walks. The visitors' centre, built to accommodate the needs of the disabled, has a restaurant, and there is a large playground for the little ones. A hedge labyrinth offers entertainment and pleasure for the whole family.

The destiny of the village of Kelmis is inseparably associated with zinc ore, which was mined there for centuries. The mining of the ore and the production of zinc were strongly influenced by the Vieille-Montagne mining company. The museum is in the company's former directorate, built in 1910. Right next door to that was the station at the end of the 1.9-km-long railway line 39 A from Moresnet to Neutral-Moresnet. Today, the entrance to the museum is in the former station building. The exhibition documents the history of mining in Kelmis and the unique political and social life in Neutral-Moresnet. In the interactive museum on two floors, visitors can travel back into the enigmatic past of the village of Kelmis with the aid of audio guides.  

It has not always been quite as easy to cross the border between Belgium and Germany as it is today. From the 1950s onwards, the border controls were reduced step by step, until they ceased to apply completely in 1995 under the Schengen Agreement.After the Second World War, the Aachen Forest was the scene of lively smuggling activities. On the German side many things were lacking, so that inhabitants of the border area went over to Belgium to barter objects of value for luxury goods such as coffee. That was a lucrative business, because in Belgium a kilo of roast coffee cost eight marks, whereas in Germany it could be sold for 16 or more. And even if this smuggling was at first pursued just to cover the smugglers' own needs, it wasn't long before professional bands of smugglers began to smuggle – or organise the smuggling of – coffee by the tonne. To achieve their objectives, the smugglers made great use of their imagination. For example, they converted items of clothing, ambulances or lorry tyres into hiding places for smuggled goods. Particularly successful smugglers sometimes spent a lot of money bribing the customs officers. Others got themselves fast cars that the latter couldn't keep up with.