Kerkrade is a town and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the western half of the divided region and de facto city, taken together with the eastern half, the German town of Herzogenrath, which was the original name of the municipality under the Holy Roman Empire. The two towns, taken together and including outlying suburban "villages", the divided municipality have a combined population approaching 100,000. The history of Kerkrade is closely linked with that of the adjacent town of Herzogenrath, just across the German border . Herzogenrath began as a settlement, called Rode, near the river Worm in the 11th century. In 1104 Augustin...more »