Aubange

Aubange Ibingen  (German)
Municipality
The townhall in Athus
Flag Coat of arms
Aubange Location in Belgium
Location of Aubange in Luxembourg province
Coordinates: 49°34′N 05°48.3′E / 49.567°N 5.8050°ECoordinates: 49°34′N 05°48.3′E / 49.567°N 5.8050°E
Country	Belgium
Community	French Community
Region	Wallonia
Province	Luxembourg
Arrondissement	Arlon
Government
• Mayor	Jean-Paul Dondelinger (cdH)
• Governing party/ies	cdH - PS
Area
• Total	45.60 km^2 (17.61 sq mi)
Population (1 January 2016)[1]
• Total	16,646
• Density	370/km^2 (950/sq mi)
Postal codes	6790-6792
Area codes	063
Website	www.aubange.be

Aubange (German: Ibingen, Luxembourgish: Éibeng, Walloon: Åbindje) is a Walloon municipality of Belgium located in the Province of Luxembourg.

On 1 January 2012 the municipality, which covers 45.6 km², had 16,042 inhabitants, giving a population density of 330.9 inhabitants per km². It is the third municipality of the Province of Luxembourg regarding the number of inhabitants but it is also among the smallest ones in terms of area.

The municipality is French-speaking but most of which falls within the Luxembourgish-speaking Arelerland, adjoins the tripoint where the borders of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and France meet.

History

Aubange was a municipality itself before the reorganization of the Belgian municipalities in 1977. At that time, it was amalgamated with Athus, Halanzy and Rachecourt to become what exists today. Even though the new municipality took the name Aubange, the biggest place is Athus and it is where most of the services and official buildings are, like the townhall, the police station, the fire station, the post office, etc.

Geography

Aubange is located in the Lorraine region in the south of Belgium just next to France and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

Subdivisions

The municipality consists of the following sub-municipalities: Aubange proper, Athus, Halanzy, and Rachecourt.

Other population centers include: Aix-sur-Cloie, Battincourt, and Guerlange.

Population

The following graph represents the growing of the population in the municipality since 1990.^[2] The village of Aubange itself contains about 4,000 inhabitants.

Economy

Container's Terminal in Athus

For a long time, Aubange has been linked with siderurgy. There were two big factories in Athus and in Halanzy and also a mine. But because of the concurrence of the foreign markets (especially the ones from Asia and Africa), siderurgy as not profitable anymore and all the factories closed one after another in the whole area.

Now the politics have tried to found new ways to develop the economy. One of the most well-known activities is the Railway Containers Terminal of Athus which deals with thousands of containers each year from the big harbors of the North Sea like Antwerp and Rotterdam to the inland of France, Germany or Luxemburg.^[3]

Transports

The railway station of Aubange

There are three railway stations in the municipality: in Athus, in and in Halanzy.

The municipality is located nearby the highway E411 which links Brussels to Luxemburg City. It is situated at 30 kilometers from the capital of the Grand-Duchy and from its international airport.

See also

• List of protected heritage sites in Aubange

References

1. Population per municipality as of 1 January 2016 (XLS; 397 KB)
2. "Chiffres de la population résidente au 1er janvier, par année 1990‑2010". le site de l’INS (in French). Retrieved 11 January 2011..
3. "Athus Container Terminal". Official website of Athus Container Terminal. Archived from the original on 2013-10-05..

External links

• Media related to Aubange at Wikimedia Commons