The village has medieval fishponds that once belonged to the Agnetendal convent in Peer, and an arboretum that originated in 1907 as an experimental plantation to grow wood that would make good pit props.

Historically a relatively poor and sparsely populated agricultural settlement, in the later 20th century it became a commuter village for people employed in Eindhoven and Genk.

Rights of presentment and tithes continued to belong to the abbey until the end of the 18th century, but during the Middle Ages the lordship passed to the control of the counts of Loon and then the prince-bishopric of Liège.

[3] A school is attested as early as 1616, but lessons took place in a room that the village rented from a tavern.

A separate girls' school opened in 1913, run by Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, who after the interruption of the First World War began work on a convent in 1922.