SW DK-276 & NL-2653355 Noord-Brabant (North Brabant)

North Brabant is a province of the Netherlands, located in the south of the country.  The capital is 's-Hertogenbosch (a shorter name is Den Bosch) and the largest city of this province is Eindhoven.  Eindhoven is a big industrial city.

Why is the name of the province ‘North’ when it is in the south of the country?

Historically there was a large province called Brabant.  After the fall of Napoleon, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands was created which incorporated Belgium and Luxemburg. The historical province of Brabant was divided into North and South. When Belgium separated from the Netherlands in 1830, only the province of North Brabant remained with the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Today North Brabant is one of the biggest and most populated Dutch provinces. With big cities like Eindhoven, Breda, Tilburg, and Den Bosch, with several important industries like electronic giant Phillips, big truck company DAF, textile and shoe factories and food processing industries, North Brabant is a vital area for the Dutch economy.

Location of North Brabant

The city of ’s-Hertogenbosch (or Den Bosch) is beautiful, old and busy with shops and restaurants. Den Bosch has several interesting buildings like the Town Hall (Stadhuis), Saint John (Sint-Jan) Cathedral and interesting contemporary art galleries.  Outside of Den Bosch, the surrounding countryside offers interesting vistas of small villages, windmills (near Heusden) and castles.

This postcard came from Marieke (2 September 2014) Swap-bot.  An identical postcard came from Heleen (12 September 2014) Postcrossing.