Veere (; zea, label=

Zeelandic Zeelandic ( zea, Zeêuws; nl, Zeeuws; vls, Zêeuws) is a group of Friso-Franconian language varieties spoken in the southwestern parts of the Netherlands. It is currently considered a Low Franconian dialect of Dutch, but there have been mov ...

, Ter Veere) is a municipality with a population of 22,000 and a town with a population of 1,500 in the southwestern

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, in the region of

Walcheren Walcheren () is a region and former island in the Dutch province of Zeeland at the mouth of the Scheldt estuary. It lies between the Eastern Scheldt in the north and the Western Scheldt in the south and is roughly the shape of a rhombus. The two ...

in the province of

Zeeland , nl, Ik worstel en kom boven("I struggle and emerge") , anthem = "Zeeuws volkslied"("Zeelandic Anthem") , image_map = Zeeland in the Netherlands.svg , map_alt = , m ...

History

The name ''Veere'' means "ferry": Wolfert Van Borssele established a ferry and ferry house there in 1281. This ferry he called the "camper-veer" or "Ferry of Campu" by which name Camphire it was known, at least in England, until the seventeenth century. It eventually became known as "de Veer". In the same year 1281 Wolfert also built the castle Sandenburg on one of the dikes he had built. On 12 November 1282, Count Floris V. thereupon issued a charter by which Wolfert received the sovereignty to the land and castle with the ferry and ferry house. From that time on Wolfert was given the title of Lord Van der Veer. Veere received city rights in 1355. Jan van der Heyden - The Church at Veere

Jan van der Heyden - The Church at Veere

The "''Admiraliteit van Veere''" (Admiralty of Veere) was set up as a result of the Ordinance on the Admiralty of 8 January 1488 in an attempt to create a central naval administration in the

Burgundian Netherlands In the history of the Low Countries, the Burgundian Netherlands (french: Pays-Bas bourguignons, nl, Bourgondische Nederlanden, lb, Burgundeschen Nidderlanden, wa, Bas Payis borguignons) or the Burgundian Age is the period between 1384 and ...

. To this was subordinated the Vice-Admiralty of

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...

in Dunkirk. In 1560 under admiral

Philip de Montmorency, Count of Hoorn Philip de Montmorency (ca. 1524 – 5 June 1568 in Brussels), also known as Count of Horn, ''Horne'', ''Hoorne'' or ''Hoorn'', was a victim of the Inquisition in the Spanish Netherlands. Biography De Montmorency was born as the eldest of four ch ...

, this admiralty relocated near

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded i ...

and in 1561 the Habsburg naval forces were also moved to Veere. Veere functioned as the staple port for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

between 1541 and 1799. In Scotland it was known as Campvere. Until the Anglo-Dutch wars it was an important trading port for the import among other things, of saffron from East Anglian ports such as Wells. Flemish architects Antonis Keldermans and Evert Spoorwater designed the ''Grote Kerk'', the fortifications, the Cisterne and the town hall. During this period of prosperity, the cultural centre was located at Sandenburgh castle, the residence of the noble Van Borsele and Van Bourgondië families. Court painter Jan Gossaert van Mabuse worked here. The poet Adrianus Valerius lived and worked in the city from 1591. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Veere was a prosperous trading city, with about 750 houses inside the city walls then, compared to about 300 . At the start of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, there was a Royal Netherlands Navy

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their technological characteri ...

base at Veere, with six Fokker C XIV-W aircraft. On 12 May 1940 the base was bombed by

He 111 The Heinkel He 111 is a German airliner and bomber designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter at Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in 1934. Through development, it was described as a "wolf in sheep's clothing". Due to restrictions placed on Germany after th ...

bombers causing some casualties. On 14 May, the seaplanes were ordered to evacuate to France and then England, eventually arriving in the Dutch East Indies where they would be destroyed in action with the Japanese in 1941 and 1942. On 17 May, German infantry of ''SS Regiment Deutschland'' of the 2nd SS Panzer Division crossed onto Walcheren via the

Sloedam The Sloedam was a dam, connecting the Dutch islands Zuid-Beveland and Walcheren near the town of Arnemuiden. Before the dam was constructed, these islands were separated by a stretch of water called the Sloe. The Sloedam was constructed in 1871 for ...

and by 18:00 that evening, the Dutch forces on the island, including the garrison at Veere, were ordered to surrender. Veere was finally liberated on 7 November 1944 by Scottish troops of the British

52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division The 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division was an infantry division of the British Army that was originally formed as the Lowland Division, in 1908 as part of the Territorial Force. It later became the 52nd (Lowland) Division in 1915. The 52nd (Lowland ...

during

Operation Infatuate Operation Infatuate was the code name given to an Anglo-Canadian operation in November 1944 during the Second World War to open the port of Antwerp to shipping and relieve logistical constraints. The operation was part of the wider Battle of the ...

, the Allied assault on Walcheren. As part of the preparations for the operation, the island's sea dykes were bombed resulting in the inundation of much of the area. Unlike many other towns on the island, Veere was virtually undamaged in the fighting. As a result of the damming of the

Veerse Gat The Veerse Gat or Veeregat was the sea channel between Walcheren and Noord-Beveland islands in Zeeland in the Netherlands. In 1961 as part of the Delta Plan it was blocked off by the Veerse Gatdam and made into an inland lake called Veerse Meer Th ...

inlet in 1961, the fishing fleet of Veere moved to a new home port at Colijnsplaat on Noord-Beveland. the main business of the town is tourism. Veere municipality reached its current expanded shape in 1997, after the addition of several neighboring towns. During the course of nearly two centuries seventeen historical municipalities have merged to become present-day Veere. Its original full name was ''Veere-de-Stad en Zanddijk-Binnen''.

Geography

The city of Veere stands on the

Veerse Meer The Veerse Meer (Lake Veere) is a lagoon in the southwest Netherlands in the province of Zeeland. Description The Veerse Meer was created as a flood control measure to regulate water levels in the surrounding polders, acting as a drainage basin f ...

lagoon on the island of

in the province of

Zeeland , nl, Ik worstel en kom boven("I struggle and emerge") , anthem = "Zeeuws volkslied"("Zeelandic Anthem") , image_map = Zeeland in the Netherlands.svg , map_alt = , m ...

in the

. The area of the municipality of Veere is 13,496 hectares, with a coastline of 34 kilometres and a population of about 22,000.

Population centres

The population centres in the municipality are:

Tourism

The area is visited by 4 million tourists annually. The main attractions are the beaches and marinas. The Storm Surge Barrier on the

Oosterschelde The Eastern Scheldt ( nl, Oosterschelde) is a former estuary in the province of Zeeland, Netherlands, between Schouwen-Duiveland and Tholen on the north and Noord-Beveland and Zuid-Beveland on the south. It also features the largest natio ...

is the most popular visitor attraction in Zeeland. The Scoutcentrum Zeeland on the coast of the Veerse Meer attracts Scout visitors from around the worldhttp://scoutcentrumzeeland.scouting.nl/index.php/welcome

In fiction

The town of Veere forms the setting for " Van Loon's Lives", a book of

contemporary fantasy Contemporary fantasy, also known as modern fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy, set in the present day or, more accurately, the time period of the maker. It is perhaps most popular for its subgenre, urban fantasy. Strictly, supernatural fiction c ...

written by

Hendrik Willem Van Loon Hendrik Willem van Loon (January 14, 1882 – March 11, 1944) was a Dutch-American historian, journalist, and children's book author. Life He was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands, the son of Hendrik Willem van Loon and Elisabeth Johanna Hanken. ...

in 1942, in which the protagonists are able to magically summon the great men and women of history for weekend dinner parties, leading to often humorous incidents. The book was written at the time when Veere, like the rest of the Netherlands, lay under Nazi occupation, and despite its light-hearted tone clearly indicates the longing of the writer – living in the US – for his homeland whose liberation he was doomed never to see. Scottish singer-songwriter

Brian McNeill Brian McNeill (born 6 April 1950, Falkirk, Scotland) is a Scottish folk multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and musical director. He was a founding member of Battlefield Band which combined traditional Celtic melodies and new m ...

based the song "The Holland Trade" from his tenth studio album ''The Baltic tae Byzantium'' on the trade and cultural ties between Veere and Scotland from 1541 on.

Notable people

Maryn Adriansen Maryn Adriansen (1600 – c.1654) (also spelled Maryn Adriaensen, Marinus Adriaensz, Marijn Adriaensz, Marin Adriaensz, Marinus Ariaens) was an early settler to New Netherland. Originally emigrating under an Indenture agreement he later became a pro ...

(1600 in Veere – ca.1654) was a boatswain and early settler to

New Netherland New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva P ...

* Peter Daane (1835 in Westkapelle – 1914) an American businessman and politician in

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

* Peter de Ru (born 1946 in Oostkapelle) a photographer in Sweden *

Maximiliaan de Vriendt Maximiliaan de Vriendt, Latinized Maximus Æmilianus Vrientius (1559–1614), was a Neo-Latin poet and a civic office-holder in the city of Ghent. Life De Vriendt was born at Zandenburg Castle, Veere, on 31 January 1559, to Jacques Jacobs de Vrien ...

(1559 at Zandenburg Castle, Veere – 1614) a

new Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...

poet * Jurn de Vries (born 1940 in Vrouwenpolder) a Dutch theologian, former politician and journalist * Nicolaas Everaerts (1461/62 in Grijpskerke – 1532) a Dutch jurist and academic *

Johannes Gabrielse Johannes Gabrielse (1881, Westkapelle – 16 June 1945, Ambarawa) was a Dutch artist born in Zeeland, who died in a Japanese internment camp in the Dutch East Indies. He taught his daughter Corrie Gabriëlse. He was also the uncle of Mary Ga ...

(1881 in Westkapelle – 1945) a Dutch artist in the Dutch East Indies *

Wim Hofman Wim Hofman ( Oostkapelle, February 2, 1941) is a Dutch author. After elementary school he joined the seminary in Sterksel, because he wanted to become a missionary. He started writing books early, and published his first novel, "Welwel, de zeer ...

(born 1941 in Oostkapelle) a Dutch author * Johannes Hermanus Koekkoek (1778 in Veere – 1851) a Dutch painter and draughtsman * Aert H. Kuipers (1919 in Oostkapelle or Middelburg – 2012) a Dutch linguistics professor who did fieldwork among

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

people of

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Hans Peter Minderhoud Hans Peter Minderhoud (born 7 October 1973 in Westkapelle, Zeeland) is a Dutch dressage rider.

(born 1973 in Westkapelle) a Dutch dressage rider *

Matthijs Röling Matthijs Nicolaas Röling (born March 31, 1943 in Oostkapelle) is a Dutch painter, active as graphic designer, wall painter, painter, draftsman, lithographer, pen artist, etcher, and academy lecturer. He is considered a kindred spirit of the 3rd ge ...

(born 1943 in Oostkapelle) a Dutch painter, graphic designer, draftsman and lithographer * Franca Treur (born 1979 near Meliskerke) a Dutch writer and a freelance journalist * Gerard von Brucken Fock (1859 in Koudekerke – 1935) a classical Dutch pianist, composer and painter *

Hans Wijers Gerardus Johannes "Hans" Wijers (born 11 January 1951) is a Dutch retired politician of the Democrats 66 (D66) party, and businessman. He is the chairman of the supervisory board of ING Group since 2018. Early life After secondary school at Ho ...

(born 1951 in Oostburg) a retired Dutch politician and chairman of the

ING Group The ING Group ( nl, ING Groep) is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Amsterdam. Its primary businesses are retail banking, direct banking, commercial banking, investment banking, wholesale bankin ...

since 2018.

Gallery

File:Harbor Veere Holland.JPG, Harbour of Veere File:2015-04-09 Hafen Veere.jpg, Hafen, Veere File:Veere, korenmolen de Koe positie2 RM36991 foto5 2014-03-16 11.52.jpg, Windmill: The "de Koe" corn windmill File:Koudekerke, Michaëlskerk foto5 2010-09-18 11.12.JPG, Koudekerke, church: Michaëlskerk File:Westkapelle, vuurtoren foto3 2010-09-18 12.38.JPG, Westkapelle, light house File:Gapinge, kerk foto3 2010-09-18 15.04.JPG, Gapinge, church File:Domburg,_stayokay_foto7_2006-07-20_09.26.JPG, Domburg, castle/youth hostel File:Serooskerke, molen foto3 2010-09-18 14.34.JPG, Serooskerke, windmill File:Zoutelande, kerk foto5 2010-09-18 12.12.JPG, Zoutelande, church

References

External links

Official websiteVeere in the picture, Beautiful photos of Veere.Website about the historic city of Veere
{{Authority control Cities in the Netherlands Municipalities of Zeeland Populated places in Zeeland Walcheren 1355 establishments in Europe