Geleen

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Geleen is a city in the southern Dutch province of Limburg, part of the municipality of Sittard-Geleen. It sits beside the Geleenbeek, a small river that flows into the Meuse, and the town center is about 60 meters above sea level.

Geleen began as a tiny village and had about 2,545 residents in 1899. In the 20th century, coal mining, especially the large state-owned Maurits mine, spurred rapid growth. The mines closed in the 1960s and 1970s, but DSM, a Dutch chemicals company, stayed in Geleen as a producer of chemicals. In 2002, part of DSM’s petrochemicals business was sold to SABIC Europe.

Today Geleen has about 31,245 residents (2021). It has two train stations, Geleen-Lutterade and Geleen Oost, on the Sittard–Maastricht and Sittard–Heerlen lines, and is served by the A2 and A76 motorways (exits Urmond and Geleen).