Haaften is a village in the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

province of

Gelderland Gelderland (), also known as Guelders () in English, is a province of the Netherlands, occupying the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Netherlands by land area, and second by ...

, on the northern shore of the river

Waal WAAL (99.1 FM "The Whale") is a commercial radio station licensed to Binghamton, New York. It airs a classic rock radio format and is owned by Townsquare Media. WAAL is the oldest FM radio station in the Binghamton metropolitan area. It is an ...

, about opposite

Zaltbommel Zaltbommel (), also known, historically and colloquially, as Bommel, is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. History The city of Zaltbommel The town of Zaltbommel was first mentioned as "Bomela" in the year 850. Zaltbommel received ...

. It is a part of the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

West Betuwe West Betuwe is a municipality in the Dutch province of Gelderland. West Betuwe had 51.948 inhabitants on 1 January 2022. The municipality was formed on January 1, 2019, by the merger of the municipalities Geldermalsen, Neerijnen, Lingewaal. To ...

, and lies about 25 km south of

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

. From 1818 to 1977 Haaften was the main village and seat of the town hall of the eponymous municipality, which also comprised the smaller villages of Hellouw to the west and Tuil to the east, all on the northern bank of the river

. On 1 January 1978 it was merged with the

Neerijnen Neerijnen () is a village and former municipality in the Netherlands. It is about south of Utrecht and some north of 's-Hertogenbosch. On 1 January 2019, it merged with Geldermalsen and Lingewaal to form the new municipality of West Betuwe. ...

municipality of which it formed the westernmost part. In 2019 Neerijnen merged with several other municipalities to form West Betuwe.

History

It was first mentioned in 1160 as Haften. The etymology is unclear. Haaften developed into a stretched out ''

esdorp __NOTOC__ An ''Angerdorf'' (plural: ''Angerdörfer'') is a type of village that is characterised by the houses and farmsteads being laid out around a central grassed area, the ''anger'' (from the Old High German ''angar'' =pasture or grassy place ...

'' which was surrounded by the

dike Dyke (UK) or dike (US) may refer to: General uses * Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian" * Dike (geology), a subvertical sheet-like intrusion of magma or sediment * Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess of moral justice * Dikes ...

of the

on three sides. Castle Goudenstein was built by the van Haeften family and was first mentioned in the 13th century. In 1672, the castle was destroyed by the French, and only the corner tower remained. In 1969, the tower was restored. In 1840, Haaften was home to 992 people. The Dutch Reformed Church was built in 1851. The

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

De Blauwe Reiger was built in 1856. It was decommissioned in 1949 and sold in 1952. The new owner restored the wind mill in 1955. Since 1975, it is owned by the municipality.

Gallery

File:Haaften Herenstraat 10.jpg, House in Haaften File:Goudenstein.jpg, Remains of castle Goudenstein File:Haaften De Blauwe Reiger.jpg, Windmill De Blauwe Reiger File:Haaften GM Koningsstraat 15.jpg, House in Haaften

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Gelderland Former municipalities of Gelderland West Betuwe