Peer, Belgium

Peer is the birth place of the composer Armand Preud'homme. From 1990 to 2018 the Armand Preud'homme Museum remembered to his life and work.^[3]

The village Grote-Brogel, part of Peer, claims to be the birthplace of Pieter Bruegel.^[4] The Bruegel Foundation was also founded in Peer to research the history of Peer and Pieter Bruegel.

Kleine-Brogel, a village that is a part of Peer, includes Kleine Brogel Air Base. Rumours that American nuclear weapons under the NATO nuclear sharing program were stationed at Kleine Brogel were eventually confirmed by Minister of Defence Pieter De Crem in 2008.^[5]

On a number of old maps, Grote Brogel is prominently depicted as Bruegel, Brugel or Breughel, while other, sometimes more important, places are not mentioned at all.

These maps are based on the work of "Jacob van Deventer".^[6]

In 1540 Sebastian Münster published a series of maps, including "BRABANTIA V > RHENIET X < NOVA TABVLA."^[7] On this map, Grote Brogel is marked as Brügel. The towns of Peer and Bree are also mentioned.

The map "Belgii inferioris descriptio emendata cum circumiacentium regionum confinijs"^[8] was later issued in book format under the supervision of Abraham Ortelius. It was first published in the French-language edition of Ludovico Guicciardini's extensive work on the Low Countries, Description de tout le Pais Bas,^[9] printed by Christoffel Plantin^[10] in Antwerp in 1582. This map mentions Bruegel while the towns of Peer and Bree are omitted. In 1585, Mercator published a larger edition of this map.^[11]

E. van Meteren, a nephew of Ortelius, produced a map of the Low Countries in which Bruegel appears as Brügel.^[12]

In 1597, Frans Hogenberg published a new version of DESCRIPTIO GERMANIAE INFERIORIS.^[13]

Johannes Mercator shows Breughel and Brey only in present-day Northern Limburg on a map of the County of Moers.^[14]

Peer has in the summer quite a nice temperature, around 20 degrees Celsius. In the winter it normally snows.