Terneuzen () is a city and municipality in the southwestern Netherlands, in the province of Zeeland, in the middle of Zeelandic Flanders. With almost 55,000 inhabitants, it is the most populous municipality of Zeeland.

History

First mentioned in 1325, Terneuzen was a strategically located port on the waterways to Ghent, in present-day Belgium. It received

city rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

in 1584. Tradition has it that Terneuzen was once the home of the legendary Flying Dutchman, Van der Decken, a captain who cursed God and was condemned to sail the seas forever, as described in the Frederick Marryat novel ''

The Phantom Ship ''The Phantom Ship'' (1839) is a Gothic novel by Frederick Marryat which explores the legend of the ''Flying Dutchman''. Plot introduction The plot concerns the quest of Philip Vanderdecken of Terneuzen in the Netherlands to save his father ...

'' and the

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

opera '' The Flying Dutchman''. Before 1877, the city was often called Neuzen.

Geography

The city of Terneuzen is located on the southern shore of the Western Scheldt estuary. The municipality of Terneuzen consists of the following population centres:

Economy

The Ghent–Terneuzen Canal is still an important shipping route connecting the Port of Ghent. The port of Terneuzen is the third-largest in the Netherlands, after those of Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The largest plant of

Dow Chemical Company The Dow Chemical Company, officially Dow Inc., is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. The company is among the three largest chemical producers in the world. Dow manufactures plastic ...

outside of the United States is located at Terneuzen, on the west side of the Ghent–Terneuzen Canal.

Transport

Terneuzen can be reached from the rest of the Netherlands via the Western Scheldt Tunnel, which opened in March 2003. Terneuzen is not linked to the rest of the Netherlands by rail, although the Dow Chemical plant is served by a freight-only line to Ghent in Belgium (Terneuzen's passenger rail service was withdrawn in 1951).

Notable residents

Lupus Hellinck Lupus Hellinck (also Wulfaert) (1493 or 1494 – ) was a Flemish composer of the Renaissance. He was a prominent composer of masses, as well as German chorales and motets. Although he was a Roman Catholic all of his life, his music shows evid ...

(1493 or 1494 – 1541) a Flemish composer of the Renaissance * Sir Bernard de Gomme (1620–1685) a Dutch military engineer *

Pieter Paulus Pieter Paulus (9 April 1753 – 17 March 1796) was a Dutch jurist, fiscal (prosecutor) of the Admiralty of the Maze and politician. He was one of the ideologues of the Dutch Patriot movement and is considered by many Dutch as the founder of their ...

(1753–1796) a Dutch jurist, fiscal (prosecutor) of the Admiralty of the Maze and politician * Francien de Zeeuw (1922–2015) a Dutch resistance fighter during WWII and the first female member of the Dutch armed forces *

Lodewijk van den Berg Lodewijk van den Berg (; March 24, 1932 – October 16, 2022) was a Dutch-born American chemical engineer. He studied crystal growth and flew on a 1985 Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' mission as a payload specialist. Van den Berg was born in t ...

(1932–2022) astronaut on a Challenger Space Shuttle mission *

Jacques Hamelink Jacobus Marinus Hamelink (12 January 1939 – 17 November 2021), better known as Jacques Hamelink, was a Dutch poet, novelist, and literary critic, who is best known for his early short story collections such as ''Het plantaardig bewind'' ("''The ...

(born 1939 in Driewegen) a Dutch poet, novelist and literary critic * Klaas de Vries (born 1944) a Dutch composer, co-founded the

Rotterdam School The term Rotterdam School is used to refer to a group of composers related to the city of Rotterdam. What started in the final decade of the twentieth century within a small circle of composition students at the Rotterdam Conservatory with a manife ...

of music * Eric van Damme (born 1956) a Dutch economist *

Jos de Putter Jos de Putter ( Terneuzen, 1959) is a Dutch film director, film critic and screenwriter who primarily makes Dutch documentary films. He studied political science and literature at the University of Leiden, and was a member of the editorial staff ...

(born 1959) a Dutch film director, film critic and screenwriter *

Mark Janse Mark Janse (born 31 August 1959 in Sas van Gent, The Netherlands) is BOF-ZAP research professor in Asia Minor and Ancient Greek at Ghent University, where he studied Classics, Hebrew and Linguistics. Before coming to Ghent, Janse has been editor o ...

(born 1959 in Sas van Gent) research professor in Asia Minor and Ancient Greek at Ghent University *

Erik de Bruyn Erik de Bruyn (born 27 October 1962) is a Dutch film director and actor. His 2000 film '' Wild Mussels'' was entered into the 23rd Moscow International Film Festival. Selected filmography * ''Mates Mates is an English surname, and may refer ...

(born 1962) film director and actor IMDb Database
retrieved 3 August 2019 *

Peter van Dommelen Peter Alexander René van Dommelen (born 1966, Terneuzen) is a Dutch archaeologist and academic, who specialises in the archaeology of the Western Mediterranean and Phoenician-Punic archaeology. Since July 2015, he has been Director of the Jouko ...

(born 1966) a Dutch archaeologist and academic *

Sandra Roelofs Sandra Elisabeth Roelofs–Saakashvili (also spelled Saakasjvili, ;, ; uk, Сандра Елісабет Рулофс-Саакашвілі, . born 23 December 1968) is a Dutch–Georgian activist and diplomat who was the First Lady of Georgia f ...

(born 1968) former first lady of Georgia

References

External links

Port of Terneuzen

Official Website (in Dutch)
{{Authority control Municipalities of Zeeland Populated places in Zeeland Cities in the Netherlands Port cities and towns in the Netherlands Port cities and towns of the North Sea Zeelandic Flanders