Named after the medieval
duchy of
Limbourg, which is a town in the Belgian
province of
Liège.
Today, the name of a Dutch and a Belgian province.
The Dutch province forms the southeasternpost part of the country; its capital is Maastricht. The south part has hills, which is fairly unique to the Netherlands: it is geologically part of the very old Ardennes/Eifel mountain range that extends far into Belgium, France, and Germany.
To the north, the province borders on Noord-Brabant; to the east, on Nordrhein-Westfalen; to the south, on the Belgian Voerstreek/Fourons, with Limbourg only 30 km away; to the west, it borders on its Belgian counterpart.
The Belgian province of Limburg is flat and mostly uninteresting for tourists. Hasselt is its capital.
Both provinces used to have a coal mining industry; its demise left the area in severe economic problems.
In the Dutch part, the mines were already closed in the 70s, and recovery is well underway.
In both countries, Limburg is known for its distinct dialect, which is melodious and soft, with the soft g as its best known characteristic. Two native Limburgers usually speak in dialect. However, there is no such thing as a common Limburg dialect: it changes quite heavily across the area, as it does anywhere else in the Dutch/German dialect continnum. The 'soft g', for instance, turns even softer across the German border, to end up as a j sound in the city of Cologne.