Hoofdplaat 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

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 ...

. It is located on the

Westerschelde The Western Scheldt ( nl, Westerschelde) in the province of Zeeland in the southwestern Netherlands, is the estuary of the Scheldt river. This river once had several estuaries, but the others are now disconnected from the Scheldt, leaving the ...

, about 7 km east of

Breskens Breskens is a harbour town on the Westerschelde in the municipality of Sluis in the province of Zeeland, in the south-western Netherlands. Its population is 4,787 (). The town is noted for the ''Visserijfeesten'' (Fishery Festival), the largest ...

, in the municipality of Sluis.

History

The village was first mentioned in 1665 as Hooge Plaet, and is named after a sand bank near the village. The area had been inhabited before. The village of Gaternesse was known to exist around 1000. The village was flooded in 1408, and in 1664, the ruins of the church were still visible. Hoofdplaats is a road intersection village which developed after the Hoofdplaatpolder was '' poldered'' between 1775 and 1778. A harbour was built in 1808, but was filled up in 1969 as part of the

Delta Works The Delta Works ( nl, Deltawerken) is a series of construction projects in the southwest of the Netherlands to protect a large area of land around the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta from the sea. Constructed between 1954 and 1997, the works con ...

. The Dutch Reformed church is modest square church with ridge turret which was built between 1783 and 1785. It was damaged during

World War II 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 opposin ...

, and restored between 1947 and 1949. The Catholic St Eligius Church was built in 1861 as a replacement of a 1795 church. It was damaged by war both in 1940 and 1944. The church was restored in 1989, but decommissioned in 2012. In 2019, it was converted to an apartment building. The former town hall was built in 1913 with

Jugendstil ''Jugendstil'' ("Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German counterpart of ...

influences and has a little built-in tower. Hoofdplaat was home to 1,031 people in 1840. On 10 October 1944, Hoofdplaats was liberated by Canadian troops as the first village in West

Zeelandic Flanders Zeelandic Flanders ( ; zea, Zeêuws-Vlaonderen; vls, Zêeuws-Vloandern)''Vlaanderen'' in isolation: . is the southernmost region of the province of Zeeland in the south-western Netherlands. It lies south of the Western Scheldt that separates ...

to be liberated. Hoofdplaat was a separate municipality until 1970.Ad van der Meer and Onno Boonstra, "Repertorium van Nederlandse gemeenten", KNAW, 2006. In 2003, it became part of the municipality of Sluis.

Gallery

File:Hoofdplaat - NH Kerk 1.jpg, Dutch Reformed church File:Hoofdplaat - Gemeentehuis 2.jpg, Former town hall File:Hoofdplaat - Westerschelde 1.jpg, Beach near the

File:Westlangeweg - Hoofdplaat.jpg, Street in Hoofdplaat

References

{{Authority control Populated places in Zeeland Former municipalities of Zeeland Sluis