Our society occupies itself with the local inheritance in order to interest the members in the past and the present of our community, to increase our knowledge and to maintain the valuable of former days. ‘Amalia’ therefore collects information in the widest sense of the word about subjects concerning the history of Baarle, Castelré, Ulicoten and Zondereigen. From the clubhouse we organise a great number of activities such as lectures, courses, exhibitions, walking tours, cycling-tours or journeys with a coach. There are working parties for our more energetic members and Amalia has her own library and documentationcentre (BiDoc). The results of study are published in thematic books, in our magazine ‘Van Wirskaante’ (which means “From both sides” and refers to the Dutch-Belgian border that converts the territory of our community in a gigantic jigsaw puzzle) or, recently, on our website.
We’re active in the so-called twin-community Baarle-Hertog (Belgium) and Baarle-Nassau (the Netherlands) and the accessory communities of Ulicoten (N), Castelré (N) and Zondereigen (B). The peculiar to Baarle, especially the eight-century-old enclaves, catches our attention and gives a chance to distinguish Amalia from other local history societies in the region. ‘Amalia’ is affiliated to the Dutch “Stichting Brabants Heem” and the Flemish “Verbond voor Heemkunde, gouw Antwerpen”, both co-ordinating associations.
