Turnhout

Turnhout grew at a crossroads under the protection of the Dukes of Brabant's hunting castle. Around 1212 Duke Henry I granted the community the liberties of a free town. A Saturday market was authorized in 1338, and an annual fair brought goods from the surrounding villages. By the late Middle Ages Turnhout was known for linen and woven bedding; a visitor in 1466 noted its paved streets, substantial houses and five churches.

The town became a prosperous commercial center in the sixteenth century, but the wars and religious persecution at the end of that century brought fire, disease and the departure of inhabitants to the Dutch Republic. Armies fought near Turnhout in 1597 and again in 1789. At the beginning of the nineteenth century paper-based trades began to replace the older textile industries, with Pieter Corbeels and Philippus Jacobus Brepols among their founders.