Harelbeke

Harelbeke
Municipality

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Coat of arms
Harelbeke

Location in Belgium

Coordinates: 50°51′N 03°18′E / 50.850°N 3.300°E / 50.850; 3.300Coordinates: 50°51′N 03°18′E / 50.850°N 3.300°E / 50.850; 3.300
Country Belgium
Community Flemish Community
Region Flemish Region
Province West Flanders
Arrondissement Kortrijk
Government
  Mayor Alain Top (sp.a-Groen)
  Governing party/ies sp.a-Groen, N-VA, Open Vld
Area
  Total 29.14 km2 (11.25 sq mi)
Population (1 January 2016)[1]
  Total 27,536
  Density 940/km2 (2,400/sq mi)
Postal codes 8530, 8531
Area codes 056
Website www.harelbeke.be

Harelbeke (West Flemish: Oarlbeke) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Harelbeke proper and the towns of Bavikhove and Hulste. On January 1, 2006, Harelbeke had a total population of 26,172. The total area is 29.14 km² which gives a population density of 898 inhabitants per km². Inhabitants consider their hometown to be a "Weireldstad", which also led to a monthly "Harelbekedag" amongst the students of Harelbeke who are studying in Ghent

Famous natives

Harelbeke New British Cemetery

This cemetery is located just outside the downtown of Harelbeke and was designed by Willian Harrison Cowlishaw[2] and contains the graves of 1126 Commonwealth soldiers who died during WWI (1055 from the UK, 26 from Canada, 7 from Australia, 4 from South Africa and 3 from Newfoundland). In addition 10 British soldiers who died during WWII are buried here.

Events

Harelbeke has, since 1958, been the start and finish place of the E3 Harelbeke, a semi classic cycling race held the week before the Tour of Flanders.

Twin towns

References

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This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.