Bocholtz is a town in the Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 province of Limburg

Limburg (Netherlands)

Limburg is the southernmost of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. It is located in the southeastern part of the country and bordered by the province of Gelderland to the north, Germany to the east, Belgium to the south and part of the west, andthe Dutch province of North Brabant partly to...

. It is a part of the municipality of Simpelveld

Simpelveld

Simpelveld is a municipality and a town in the southeastern Netherlands.Simpelveld has a heritage railway station and is the homebase of the South Limburg Railway Compagny ZLSM . On one weekend in October there is a Day out with Thomas from the children's television series Thomas and...

, and lies about 7 km southwest of Kerkrade

Kerkrade

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...

. Until 1982, it was a separate municipality.

In January 2007, Bocholtz had 5,573 inhabitants. The built-up area of the town was 0.76 km², and contained 1,810 residences.

History

Bocholtz dates back to the Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 era. A Roman villa

Villa

A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...

 was found in the Vlengendaal, a street of Bocholtz, in 1911. A farmer plowing his land found a Roman sarcophagus

Sarcophagus

A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek σαρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγειν phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos...

 in October 2003.

The Castle De Bongard dates from the 16th century. Hoeve Overhuizen is a fortified farm with roots dating back as far as the 13th century.

The church was built between 1869 and 1873 by architect Pierre Cuypers

Pierre Cuypers

Petrus Josephus Hubertus Cuypers was a Dutch architect. His name is most frequently associated with the Amsterdam Central Station and the Rijksmuseum , both in Amsterdam. More representative for his oeuvre, however, are numerous churches, of which he designed more than 100...

. While expanding the church in 1953, they found the remains of a building from the late medieval period.