Half way between Liège and Brussels, right on the linguistic border, lies the town of Tienen (French Tirlemont), center of the fertile Hageland. The principal agricultural crop of the surroundings is sugar beet which is processed in Tienen, the town being the center of the Belgian sugar industry.
The former settlement on a Roman road, which in parts has been well maintained, was first mentioned in a charter of Charles the Bold in 872. As early as 1015 the counts of Leuven granted rights to the town, and a little later the first fortifications were erected. In the Middle Ages the skill of the cloth makers assumed importance far beyond the town and helped it to gain prosperity and respect. The sugar industry developed in the 19th C. Towards the end of the war in 1944 the town suffered greatly from German bombing attacks.
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