Empel

Empel is a village and former municipality, which is now a quarter of 's-Hertogenbosch in the Dutch province of North Brabant.

Empel is a village and former municipality, which is now a quarter of 's-Hertogenbosch in the Dutch province of North Brabant.

Points of interest

Empel was the ancient site of a temple dedicated to Hercules Magusanus. It is one of only a few religious monuments from Germania Inferior that can be interpreted with a fair degree of certainty. Hercules Magusanus was the Latin name of the supreme god of the Batavians. Many votive gifts have been found near the temple. Amongst these, the many used weapons indicate that this temple was indeed dedicated to a non-Roman god. These archaeological traces are not available for public viewing. The Castle Park is an outdoor activity park. It shows the outline of the motte, keep and outer-bailey of former Empel en Meerwijk Castle. The park has a playground for children, a basketball court, a panna cage, a skatepark and a pétanque court. The park protects the archaeological remains of the castle, as well as those of a medieval brick oven. The latter is covered by the Empel Folly. The Saint Landelinus Church was inaugurated on 25 December 1949. It replaced the Neogothic Landelinus Church of Oud-Empel which had been destroyed in 1945. The current church is a brick Christocentric church designed by the Tilburg architect N.H. Pontzen (1913-1979). The Stations of the Cross have been painted on the concrete pillars by Egbert Deckers. A cross was made by . Frans van der Burgt made a sculpture of Anthony the Great. A triptych by Léon Wiegman depicts the Miracle of Empel. The recently dug Máxima Canal (2014) is just east of Empel. It is sided by bicycle lanes that essentially go nowhere, and are therefore very popular with sport enthusiasts.

Battle of Empel

The Battle of Empel or, to the Spanish, Miracle of Empel (Milagro de Empel in Spanish) was a battle fought on December 7 and December 8, 1585, as part of the Eighty Years' War, in which a Spanish army miraculously escaped destruction after discovering a hidden Dutch Catholic image of the Immaculate Conception. The Spanish army was in a desperate situation, under siege by the Dutch Protestant navy and surrounded by the rivers. The story says that in the night following the discovery of the image, the rivers froze and the Spanish army ran over the frozen rivers escaping from the siege, destroying or capturing all the ships in the Dutch fleet stuck in the ice, and overrunning the Dutch army camp. In Spain, the battle is still remembered as it is believed that the Spanish army was saved due to intervention of Mary of the Immaculate Conception. In memory of the battle, the Immaculate Conception is the patroness of the Spanish infantry.

External links

Empel, The Sanctuary of Magusanus Article on the site of the Army Museum of The Netherlands (in Dutch)

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1375862378 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.