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Castle Hoensbroek is located in the Netherlands in the southern part of the province of Limburg in the village of Hoensbroek (municipality of Heerlen). It lies about 25 km from Achen and from Maastricht. The oldest part of Castle Hoensbroek dates from 1250. It won't surprise you to learn that in the meantime the castle has gone through quite some changes. The castle partly collapsed at one time, was rebuilt, extended and renovated. About 5 km northeast of Heerlen in the village of Hoensbroek, where three creeks flow into each other - the Geleen Creek, the Molen Creek and the Auvermoer Creek - lies a castle known locally as ‘Gebrookhoes’. Similarly, the village was originally called ‘Gebrook, Gebroek, Ingenbrouck’, in accordance with its location in the ‘broek‘, a Dutch word for marshland, as the village is situated in the meadows adjacent to the three creeks. Long after the House of Hoen had acquired the manorial rights for ‘Gebrook’, which until 1388 belonged to Heerlen, this area - this 'broek' belonging to the Hoens - was given the name ‘Hoensbroek’. Similarly, the House of Hoen, residing in ‘Gebrookhoes’, referred to itself as ‘Hoen zu Broeck’, i.e. from Hoensbroeck, in order to differentiate itself from other branches of the family. I'll tell you more soon...