History

The history from 1992 to pressent date. A little bit of history.

The contacts with the municipality Nepomuk started in May 1992 with a first official visit of citizens of Swalmen to Nepomuk, directly followed in august of the same year by an official counter visit of citizens from Nepomuk to Swalmen.

The first official visit of the Mayor and Aldermen of Swalmen took place in March 1993. The last official visit of this delegation dates from 2003.

A lot of travelling, individual and in groups, to and from Nepomuk took place through all those years. A lot of these exchanges have been organized between clubs, music bands and other organisations to see, discus and to learn from each other. Music groups from Swalmen and the surrounding villages/towns have let hear their consonances in Nepomuk, like the “Kepotmaekerie”, “Geine Aom”, the “Gaamblaozers” and the “Jengels Bengels Band” gave an admired performance during the international culture festival in Nepomuk in 2001.

In 1993 and 1994, children from Nepomuk took part of the children holiday week in Swalmen, and also children from Swalmen, under the guidance of the Dutch scouts, took part of the child camp Prebudov at Nepomuk, organized by the local Pioneers.

During a third official visit to Nepomuk, among many things, a group of older citizens from Swalmen visited elderly citizen in Nepomuk. They presented a video tape about the elderly work in Swalmen.

In April 1994 the first official visit followed by the, newly established, Workgroup Nepomuk-Swalmen to Swalmen.

Contacts and exchanges took place on a frequently basis between the school `Oselce` in Nepomuk and the `Burgemeester Boots College` in Swalmen.

A provisional peak was reached when a joint operation agreement was signed by the municipality of Swalmen and Nepomuk in 1995. After a local action `Nepomuk bater op waeg`, organised by the people of Swalmen, an ambulance was offered to the municipality of Nepomuk. In 1996 a house to house flyer was issued in both municipalities with current information about both partner cities.

Also several sport clubs met each other like the tennis association, football clubs of Swalmen and Boukoul, table-tennis club Destatec, billiard clubs and in 1997, a number of people from Swalmen cycled, within the framework of a sponsorship action for the “Drum and Piper band Heide”, from Nepomuk to Swalmen. Contacts and exchanges follow e.g. elderly person work, artists and entrepreneurs. Friendships aroused and within the framework of his graduation project, a student produced an audiovisual production in 1998, a documentary called; Matchmaker, two cultures meet each other. He filmed among different things in Swalmen and Nepomuk with regarding the contacts between the two municipalities. The elderly home `Sint Jan Babtist` gave several materials and products to the seniors in Nepomuk.

A major conference was organised in Czechia for representatives of several Dutch and Czech municipalities, including the working groups Swalmen and Nepomuk. This conference, which started in Swalmen, found a continuation in the Netherlands in 2003.

Ceramicists from Nepomuk and surrounding villages took part of the ceramist marked in Swalmen.

A delegation of the municipality from Nepomuk was presented at the opening of the new municipality house in Swalmen in 2001.

Both working parties produced an Internet site which is linked to the Internet site of both municipalities.

In March 2003 Mayor Denie from Swalmen visited Nepomuk for the first time, followed by a visit to Nepomuk, with a warm welcome, by the folk-association called` De Aartjes` from Asselt.

In 2004, an other peak followed when the friendship agreement between both municipalities was transposed into an official twinning agreement. This signature was the component of a weekend programme with the inaugurating of the new statue of the holy Johannus of Nepomuk and the Johannus chapel in the `Sint Lambertus` church in Swalmen and an exposition was held in the municipality house about Johannus of Nepomuk. All this was attended by the ambassador of the Czech Republic in the Netherlands Mr. Petr Kubernát. The working group Swalmen-Nepomuk was converted into the foundation Swalmen-Nepomuk. And also in 2004 Mayor Denie, on behalf of the municipality Swalmen, and Mirek Nemec, on behalf of the municipality Nepomuk, took part of the conference town twinnings Czechia and the Netherlands in Prague.

In 2005, a delegations of innkeepers, the municipality, billiard players, tourists and schools from Swalmen visited Nepomuk.

The working party of Nepomuk re-visited Swalmen again in 2006. This was also the last year that Swalmen was an in depended municipality, therefore many activities where organized for both working groups by the municipality of Roermond. This was mainly organized for familiarisation.

In 2007 the close contacts between Nepomuk and Swalmen existed 15 years and this was, of course, celebrated by both parties in Nepomuk. Old members and their partners where also present together with a delegation of the Mayor and Aldermen of the municipality of Roermond.

In 2008, 3 people from Nepomuk came to Swalmen, on a work experience basis, to see how we worked in the health care, older people care, and care for people with disabilities and in the tourist branch. There were also many activities organized such as; guides walk through the city of Roermond, a bicycle ride to and along the most beautiful spots in Swalmen and even a jeu de boules game was played, which was won by the people of Nepomuk. And in addition there was an exchange visit between the Fire Brigade Swalmen and Nepomuk. Also a delegation of the school from Nepomuk was present to set up an e-mail project between children from Nepomuk and Swalmen in order to learn the English language. And finally the annually meeting between both foundations was held.

In 2009 it was our turn again to visit Nepomuk. We went by bus with a large group of people accompanied by members of Proteion, the healthcare company of mid and North Limburg, primary schools, hotels and restaurants from Swalmen where we visited various care homes in and around Nepomuk and the local school. And because of the amount of snow we went for a cross-country skiing tour in Sumava. We ended our visit with a game of bowling where we lost again.

October 2009, the Foundation took part in the celebrations of the unveiling of the partnership boards at the entrance-boards at Swalmen. This was together with also the government of the city of Roermond and representatives of the Foundation Swalmen-Marktredwitz.

The working groups are working continuously to the improving and updating the web site in three languages.