Diest, situated on both banks of the Demer in the transition zone between the fertile and hilly Hageland and the wooded Kempenland, is the market center of an intensively farmed area. The main products grown here are asparagus, early potatoes and vegetables. Diest, which received its charter in the second
half of the 13th C., ranked among the most important towns in Brabant because of its famous cloth-making, an industry which has long since disappeared. It has been replaced by flour-milling and other branches of the food industry. From its rich history remarkable buildings and parts of the fortifications have been preserved. Diest is closely associated with the House of Orange-Nassau, to which the present day Queen of the Netherlands belongs. Like Breda in the Netherlands, Dillenburg in Germany and Orange in France Diest was the seat of the royal house. Its most important representative was Prince William I of Orange-Nassau, called William the Silent, who led the Dutch revolts against Spanish domination.
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