"echt" is also the Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

 and German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 word for "real

Reality

In philosophy, reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. In a wider definition, reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible...

".

Echt is a city in the Dutch municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 of Echt-Susteren

Echt-Susteren

Echt-Susteren is a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. Echt-Susteren was created in 2003 by merging the former municipalities of Echt and Susteren....

, located in the province of Limburg

Limburg (Netherlands)

Limburg is the southernmost of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. It is located in the southeastern part of the country and bordered by the province of Gelderland to the north, Germany to the east, Belgium to the south and part of the west, andthe Dutch province of North Brabant partly to...

, Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. It used to be a municipality by itself until it merged with the municipality of Susteren

Susteren

Susteren is a city in the Dutch province of Limburg. It is located in the municipality of Echt-Susteren, about 7 km northwest of Sittard. It was a separate municipality until 2003, when it was merged with Echt. Susteren received town privileges in 1276....

, an event that took place on January 1, 2003.

The former municipality of Echt had about 19.300 inhabitants and had an area

Area

Area is a quantity that expresses the extent of a two-dimensional surface or shape in the plane. Area can be understood as the amount of material with a given thickness that would be necessary to fashion a model of the shape, or the amount of paint necessary to cover the surface with a single coat...

 of about 75,13 square-km.

Sights

• Sint-Landricuskerk; a Catholic hall church
  Hall church
  A hall church is a church with nave and side aisles of approximately equal height, often united under a single immense roof. The term was first coined in the mid-19th century by the pioneering German art historian Wilhelm Lübke....
  
   in gothic style
  Gothic architecture
  Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
  
  .

Transportation

• By car; Echt is located near the A2 highway
• By train; Echt railway station
  Echt railway station
  Echt is a railway station located in Echt, The Netherlands. The station was opened in 1862 and is located on the Maastricht–Venlo railway. The station is operated by Nederlandse Spoorwegen.-Destinations:...
  
   is served by the Dutch Railways
  Nederlandse Spoorwegen
  Nederlandse Spoorwegen , or NS, is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands.Its trains operate over the tracks of the Dutch national railinfrastructure, operated by ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003...
  
  (Dutch: Nederlandse Spoorwegen)