Waalre () is an affluent municipality and town in the province of North Brabant in the southern Netherlands, immediately south of the city of Eindhoven.

Population centres

  • Aalst
  • Waalre

Waalre is often called the Groenfontein (Green fountain) due to its civic policy of providing a variety of trees in its streets.

Waalre is considered one of the richest villages in the Netherlands due to the numerous millionaires living there. It was voted 7th best Dutch municipality to live in, according to a 2010 Elsevier research. The municipality is surrounded by woods, fields, and lakes. The nearest city is Eindhoven, which is situated on the other side of the A67 motorway.

The spoken language is Kempenlands (an East Brabantian dialect, which is very similar to colloquial Dutch).

Town council

The current town council was elected at the 2022 local elections.

{| class="wikitable"

!colspan="8"|Council seats

|-

|Party||2002

||2006||2010||2014||2018

||2022

|-

|D66||1||1||2||4||3||3

|-

|Aalst-Waalre Belang||4||2||5||3||4||3

|-

|VVD||4||4||4||3||3||3

|-

|CDA||3||3||3||3||2||3

|-

|GroenLinks||0||1||1||1||2||2

|-

|ZW14||0||0||0||0||2||2

|-

|PvdA||2||4||2||1||1||1

|-

|Gemeente Belangen '74||3||2||0||0||0||0

|-

|Zelfstandig Waalre||0||0||0||2||0||0

|-

|Total||17||17||17||17||17||17

|}

Waalre town hall

In July 2012 the town hall of Waalre was destroyed by a fire that resulted from two cars driving into the building from opposite ends at night.

Notable people

  • Geert Jan Jansen (born 1943 in Waalre) a painter and art forger, who was arrested in 1994 and convicted in 2000.
  • Pierre Karsmakers (born 1946 in Waalre) 1973 AMA National Champion and three-time Dutch motocross national champion (1967, 1969, 1972).
  • John Baselmans (born 1954 in Aalst) an artist, sculptor, graphic designer and illustrator, lives in Curaçao
  • Jan van den Dobbelsteen (born 1954 in Waalre) an interdisciplinary artist who teaches at Academy St. Joost
  • Frans van Houten (born 1960) CEO of Royal Philips Electronics since 2011
  • Martijn Oostra (born 1971 in Waalre) a graphic designer, photographer, artist and publicist

<gallery mode=packed>

File:Oude Sint Willibrorduskerk, Waalre.JPG|Oude Sint Willibrordus kerk, Waalre

File:Waalre, de Sint-Willibrorduskerk RM513711 2023-04-09 16.21.jpg|Waalre, church: the Sint-Willibrorduskerk

File:Monument 513719, Eindhovenseweg 67 Waalre.jpg|Eindhovenseweg, Waalre

File:Waalre Heikant.jpg|Heikant, a hamlet located between Waalre and Valkenswaard

File:Eindhovenseweg 91, Aalst GM.JPG|Eindhovenseweg, Aalst

</gallery>

References