Launch Tilburg Twilight | Mercure Hotel Tilburg Centrum

Launching Tilburg Twilight

During the launch of this fantastic Tilburg Twilight book, Mayor Theo Weterings had the honour of handing over the first copies to the elderly people present from the Met Je Hart Foundation.

In the run-up to a major renovation of Mercure Hotel Tilburg Centrum, general manager Niek van den Broek came up with the idea of dressing up the rooms with photos of Tilburg. In this way, Niek wanted to connect the hotel with the city. With this in mind, he approached the photographer Camiel Donders asking if he had some nice images of the city lying around that could be used for the hotel. Camiel thought it would be better to make another round through Tilburg and capture places worth seeing.

Photos at dusk

By chance, Camiel took a beautiful photo of Tilburg's Palace-Council House at dusk. Camiel and Niek were immediately hugely enthusiastic about this photo and from there the idea was turned into action. In total, 80 of the 108 hotel rooms needed a cityscape. A huge job, because for good twilight you need a full moon and it must not be cloudy. In the end, photographing all those beautiful spots took three years.

Phenomenal stories

As the results were stunning, Niek decided to contact Marcel de Reuver, city guide in Tilburg. He was asked if he would write beautiful, historical stories to accompany these cityscapes. No sooner said than done. Marcel wrote phenomenal stories for the 80 cityscapes, all with a little wink. Thanks to these wonderful texts, each room now tells a unique story about Tilburg.

The book Tilburg Twilight

The whole project took much longer than estimated beforehand. "A shame not to do anything further with this," thought Niek. He decided to compile the photos and stories and turn them into a book: Tilburg Twilight. "This way, together with unique photos, we can give the history of Tilburg back to the city." Today was the landing of the book, where Mayor Theo Weterings had the honour of handing over the first copies to the elderly people present from the Met Je Hart foundation.

The book is here free to admire. Also, the book is on sale from today for just €12.95 at Mercure Hotel Tilburg Centrum, VVV Tilburg, Gianotten Mutsaers and Ollie's Brandstore. "It really is a gem to put on the table," says Niek.