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Vaalserberg
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Vaalserberg
The Vaalserberg (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈvaːlsərˌbɛr(ə)x]; Limburgish: Vaolserberg [ˈvɒː˦˨lsəʀˌbæː˦˨˧ʀəx]) is a hill with a height of 322.4 metres (1,058 ft) above NAP and is the highest point in the European part of the Netherlands. The Vaalserberg is located in the province of Limburg, at the south-easternmost edge of the country, near the town of Vaals (after which it is named).
The Vaalserberg was the highest point anywhere in the Netherlands until the Caribbean island of Saba, with its 887-metre-high (2,910-foot) volcano, was incorporated into the country as a "special municipality" in 2010.
The Vaalserberg is also the location of the tripoint between Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands and so its summit is called the Drielandenpunt ("three country point") in Dutch, Dreiländereck ("three country corner") in German and Trois Frontières ("three borders") or Trois Bornes ("three border stones") in French.
On the Belgian side, the tripoint borders the region of Wallonia, including both the regular French-speaking area and the smaller German-speaking area. The German side falls within the city limits of Aachen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Between 1830 and 1919, the summit was a quadripoint, also bordering Neutral Moresnet, which is now part of Belgium's German-speaking area.
The current Belgian-German border is not the same as the former eastern border of Moresnet with Prussia but is a little more to the east. Therefore, five different borders came together at this point but never more than four at one time, except possibly between 1917 and 1920, when the border situation was unclear and disputed.
The border intersection has made the Vaalserberg a well-known tourist attraction in the Netherlands, with a 50-metre (160 ft) tower on the Belgian side (Dutch: Boudewijntoren; French: Tour Baudouin; German: Balduin-Turm), opened in 1994 to replace the previous 33-metre (108 ft) tower, built in 1970. It offers a grand panorama of the surrounding landscape.
140 metres (460 ft) south of the point, a railway crosses the German-Belgian border in the Gemmenicher Tunnel. It is the freight-only railway between Tongeren and Aachen.
In 2025, Esperantists launched an initiative to rename the Vaalserberg to Monto Zamenhof, in order to draw attention to the history of Amikejo, a proposed Esperanto-speaking state in the former Neutral Moresnet, and to honour the founder of the Esperanto language, L. L. Zamenhof. The Universal Esperanto Association officially supports the initiative.
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Vaalserberg
The Vaalserberg (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈvaːlsərˌbɛr(ə)x]; Limburgish: Vaolserberg [ˈvɒː˦˨lsəʀˌbæː˦˨˧ʀəx]) is a hill with a height of 322.4 metres (1,058 ft) above NAP and is the highest point in the European part of the Netherlands. The Vaalserberg is located in the province of Limburg, at the south-easternmost edge of the country, near the town of Vaals (after which it is named).
The Vaalserberg was the highest point anywhere in the Netherlands until the Caribbean island of Saba, with its 887-metre-high (2,910-foot) volcano, was incorporated into the country as a "special municipality" in 2010.
The Vaalserberg is also the location of the tripoint between Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands and so its summit is called the Drielandenpunt ("three country point") in Dutch, Dreiländereck ("three country corner") in German and Trois Frontières ("three borders") or Trois Bornes ("three border stones") in French.
On the Belgian side, the tripoint borders the region of Wallonia, including both the regular French-speaking area and the smaller German-speaking area. The German side falls within the city limits of Aachen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Between 1830 and 1919, the summit was a quadripoint, also bordering Neutral Moresnet, which is now part of Belgium's German-speaking area.
The current Belgian-German border is not the same as the former eastern border of Moresnet with Prussia but is a little more to the east. Therefore, five different borders came together at this point but never more than four at one time, except possibly between 1917 and 1920, when the border situation was unclear and disputed.
The border intersection has made the Vaalserberg a well-known tourist attraction in the Netherlands, with a 50-metre (160 ft) tower on the Belgian side (Dutch: Boudewijntoren; French: Tour Baudouin; German: Balduin-Turm), opened in 1994 to replace the previous 33-metre (108 ft) tower, built in 1970. It offers a grand panorama of the surrounding landscape.
140 metres (460 ft) south of the point, a railway crosses the German-Belgian border in the Gemmenicher Tunnel. It is the freight-only railway between Tongeren and Aachen.
In 2025, Esperantists launched an initiative to rename the Vaalserberg to Monto Zamenhof, in order to draw attention to the history of Amikejo, a proposed Esperanto-speaking state in the former Neutral Moresnet, and to honour the founder of the Esperanto language, L. L. Zamenhof. The Universal Esperanto Association officially supports the initiative.
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