![Bezoekerscentrum Verdronken Land van Saeftinghe](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Bezoekerscentrum_Verdronken_Land_van_Saeftinghe.JPG)
Saeftinghe or Saaftinge was a town in the southwest
Netherlands
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, 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 ...
, located in eastern
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 t ...
, near
Nieuw-Namen
Nieuw-Namen is a village in the Dutch province of Zeeland. It is a part of the municipality of Hulst, and lies about 24 km south of Bergen op Zoom. The village is located on the border with the Belgium, and forms a single urban area with the B ...
. It existed until 1584. It is now a swamp known as the ( nl, Verdronken Land van Saeftinghe) and an official nature reserve area. The land is a crosspoint where the river
Scheldt
The Scheldt (french: Escaut ; nl, Schelde ) is a river that flows through northern France, western Belgium, and the southwestern part of Netherlands, the Netherlands, with its mouth at the North Sea. Its name is derived from an adjective corr ...
meets the salty waters of the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...
in the
estuary
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...
Western Scheldt
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 W ...
. It is a treacherous place where the tides easily consume large stretches of land in a matter of seconds and must not be explored without an experienced guide.
History
Saeftinghe was drained in the 13th century under the management of the
abbey of Ter Doest.
Willem van Saeftinghe
Willem van Saeftinghe ("William of Saeftinghe"; d. 1309?) was a lay brother in the Cistercian abbey of Ter Doest in Lissewege, West Flanders, Belgium. He fought at the Battle of the Golden Spurs, and became a Flanders, Flemish folk hero.
Life
...
was one of the best known occupants of the abbey and gave his name to the stretch of land claimed from the sea. Up to 1570, the land was very fertile
polder
A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as dikes. The three types of polder are:
# Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a lake or the seabed
# Flood plains s ...
. Agriculture, peat burning and trade turned Saeftinghe into one of the most prosperous places in the region. There were several additional settlements nearby: Namen, Sint-Laureins, Stampaert, Weele (Sint-Marie), Sint-Laureijns and Casuwele.
The settlements were mostly small villages with just a few houses and huts, but there was also
Saeftinghe Castle, built in 1279. Today all is buried beneath several layers of clay and sand due to several floods over the years. Large bricks were found at several places in land. Those bricks were probably remainders of the abbey used by the villagers to build their houses when the abbey was destroyed due to several floods. Today some of those bricks can be seen in the nearby Visitors Center.
Most of the land around the town was lost in the
All Saint's flood of 1570 (the ''Allerheiligenvloed''). Four years later the drowned land reached into what is now
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
. Only Saeftinghe and some surrounding land managed to remain dry.
In 1584, during the
Eighty Years' War
The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt ( nl, Nederlandse Opstand) ( c.1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Refo ...
, Dutch soldiers found themselves forced to destroy the last intact dike and Saeftinghe sunk into the waters of the
Scheldt
The Scheldt (french: Escaut ; nl, Schelde ) is a river that flows through northern France, western Belgium, and the southwestern part of Netherlands, the Netherlands, with its mouth at the North Sea. Its name is derived from an adjective corr ...
. Attempts to reclaim the area were made throughout history; the most serious project taking place in 1907, but even then only the
Hertogin Hedwigepolder was conquered from the sea. Nowadays a hamlet is located within the reclaimed portions of land, called .
Saaftinge itself has never been retrieved.
In 1970, all of the area was incorporated into the municipality of
Hulst
Hulst () is a municipality and city in southwestern Netherlands in the east of Zeelandic Flanders.
History
Hulst received city rights in the 12th century.
Hulst was captured from the Spanish in 1591 by Maurice of Orange but was recaptured b ...
, when and
Clinge
Clinge is a village in the Dutch province of Zeeland. It is a part of the municipality of Hulst, and lies about 28 km southwest of Bergen op Zoom. Clinge is located on the Dutch-Belgian border and joins with the Belgian town of De Klinge, in ...
ceased to exist.
Within the historical municipal limits, Saaftinge today has a population of 55. The flag consists of a blue lion rampant on a white field. The lion originates from the personal shield of Willem van Saeftinghe.
[A.M. Schouten, "Historische Gemeenten van Nederland en hun Vlaggen", 2012.]
The legend
A legend of Saeftinghe attributes the
All Saint's flood to capturing a mermaid and not setting her free. This caused the region to be cursed by the merman, and led to the flood that destroyed the towns of Sint-Laureins, Namen and Casuwele, killing all inhabitants. The legend holds that a tower bell calls for help from the sunken town. Another Saeftinghe legend holds the belief that visitors of the area and inhabitants of the nearby village of Emmadorp sometimes see 'ghosts' in the fog. According to the legend the ghosts are the spirits of the inhabitants of the three towns killed in the flood.
Visitor centre
A visitor centre opened in Emmadorp in 1997, from where excursions to the nature reserve depart. From 1997 to 2007, an average of around 12,000 visitors per year went on excursions.
See also
*
Lost city
A lost city is an urban settlement that fell into terminal decline and became extensively or completely uninhabited, with the consequence that the site's former significance was no longer known to the wider world. The locations of many lost citi ...
References
External links
*
{{Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta
Destroyed cities
Submerged places
Underwater ruins
Swamps of Europe
1584 disestablishments
Former populated places in the Netherlands
Wetlands of the Netherlands
Landforms of Zeeland
History of Zeeland
Zeelandic Flanders
Hulst
Ramsar sites in the Netherlands