Opijnen 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 ...
. It is a part of the municipality of
West Betuwe
West Betuwe is a municipality in the Netherlands, 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, Li ...
, and lies about 10 km southwest of
Tiel
Tiel () is a municipality and a town in the middle of the Netherlands. The town is enclosed by the Waal river and the Linge river to the South and the North, and the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal to the East. Tiel comprises the population centres Kapel- ...
.
Opijnen was a separate municipality until 1818, when it changed its name to
Est en Opijnen.
History
It was first mentioned in 1265 as Opynen, and means upstream as compared to
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.
...
. The village developed parallel to the
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 ...
as 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 ...
''.
In 1265, Opijnen became the property of Raoul de Châtillon, a French nobleman who had fled to
Gelre
The Duchy of Guelders ( nl, Gelre, french: Gueldre, german: Geldern) is a historical duchy, previously county, of the Holy Roman Empire, located in the Low Countries.
Geography
The duchy was named after the town of Geldern (''Gelder'') in p ...
after a dispute with the King of France. A castle was built near the village, however it disappeared in the 16th century.
The Dutch Reformed Church was built in 1860 and the tower dates from 1925.
In 1840, Opijnen was home to 333 people.
Opijnen is home to the graves of eight American airmen who were shot down on 30 July 1943, and killed while returning to England from a bombing raid over Kassel, Germany. The village honoured the airmen by burying them in their cemetery. From that time and for seventy-five years afterwards, the village honoured these men annually with a formal church service and then a laying of flowers on the graves. In 2006, the village opened a housing complex with eighty-six units. The airmen were further honoured by having the streets in that housing complex named after them.
Washington Post Magazine November 11, 2018
/ref>
Gallery
File:N-H kerk Opijnen.jpg, Dutch Reformed Church
File:Waalbridges near Zaltbommel, an old railwaybridge and the new cable stayed motorwaybridge - panoramio.jpg, Bridges over the Waal
File:Opijnen GM Waaldijk 20.jpg, Dike house
File:Opijnen GM Repensestraat 7.jpg, House in Opijnen
References
{{Authority control
Populated places in Gelderland
Former municipalities of Gelderland
West Betuwe