The hot air balloon is at the Partij by Jeroen de Jongh Photography

About "The hot air balloon is at the Partij"

by Jeroen de Jongh Photography

About the artwork

Partij (Limburg: Partei) is a village in the Dutch-Limburg municipality of Gulpen-Wittem. The village forms together with the nearby hamlet Wittem the twin village Partij-Wittem. Through the village flows the Sinsel or Selzerbeek.

The first official mention of Partij dates from 1364 as dae torteyd, which is said to be derived from the Latin word tortata, meaning 'bend' or 'curve'. Wittem castle was built close to the village in the 13th century. The territory around Partij and Wittem was elevated to a free imperial lordship in 1520 and to a county in 1732. This Reichsgrave Wittem remained in existence until it was captured by the French in 1794. In the 18th century, Count Ferdinand van Plettenberg founded a Capuchin monastery, later the Redemptorist monastery Wittem. In 1848 a Redemptorist convent was added, the Mariëndaal convent, on the other side of the old military road Maastricht-Aachen.

Partij lies wedged between the Geul and the Selzerbeek at an altitude of about 98 metres. To the south-west of Partij, on the other side of the Geul, lies the Plateau van Crapoel with the Dunnenbos. To the north you will find the Plateau of Bocholtz. The vast majority of the area around Partij is used as agricultural land.

A hot air balloon is an aircraft in which a basket, which accommodates the passengers, rises, hanging from a balloon ('envelope') that is lighter than air. The whole is propelled by the wind. The horizontal movement of the balloon depends on the direction of t