Overloon

Overloon is a village with 3,626 inhabitants on the outskirts of Peel, in the municipality of Boxmeer, Noord-Brabant. Located on the outskirts is the National Museum of War and Resistance of the Netherlands, which originated as a museum for a World War II battle (Battle of Overloon) that occurred around the village in September and October 1944. The village is located close to the A73 motorway between Venlo and Nijmegen.

Toponymy

In ancient times it was called simply Loon. Loon or Lo(o) means forest with low trees, with an open meadow and swamp. The element "over" was added to the name much later, to distinguish it from the nearby Loon Ravenstein, Neerloon. "Neder" and "over" here have the meanings respectively lower and higher, or downstream and upstream.

History

Since the formation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the village was part of the Maashees Overloon municipality with the nearby hamlet of Maashees. In 1942 the village of Vierlingsbeek was added to the municipality and in 1998 they were all included within Boxmeer. Around 1900 the village was widely spread across moorlands and poorly connected to larger towns such as Venray, Vierlingsbeek, Sambeek, Oploo en Sint Anthonis. There were about 600 people in 110 houses.