Bilzen

Bilzen is a city in the Belgian province of Limburg that was a municipality of its own until the end of 2024; on 1 January 2025 it merged with Hoeselt to form the new municipality of Bilzen-Hoeselt. In 2021 the municipality had 32,536 inhabitants on 75.90 square kilometres. Besides the city proper it takes in villages such as Beverst, Eigenbilzen, Hees, Hoelbeek, Munsterbilzen, Rijkhoven and Waltwilder, which became part of it in the 1977 fusion of municipalities. For more than 300 years it belonged to the County of Loon. Genk, Tongeren, Diepenbeek and Maastricht in the Netherlands all lie within roughly 10 to 15 kilometres. Its sights include Alden Biesen Castle in Rijkhoven and Munsterbilzen Abbey, and from 1965 to 1981 it hosted Jazz Bilzen, an annual open air jazz and rock festival that was for years the most important in Belgium.