Vrijhoef en Kalverbroek is a former ''

heerlijkheid A ''heerlijkheid'' (a Dutch word; pl. ''heerlijkheden''; also called ''heerschap''; Latin: ''Dominium'') was a landed estate that served as the lowest administrative and judicial unit in rural areas in the Dutch-speaking Low Countries before 1800. ...

'' ( manor) and municipality 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

South Holland South Holland ( nl, Zuid-Holland ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.7 million as of October 2021 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely ...

. It was located about 3 km east of the city of Gouda, in the current municipality of

Reeuwijk Reeuwijk () is a former municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The former municipality covers an area of 50.11 km2 (of which 11.89 km2 is water). Since January 1, 2011 Reeuwijk merged with Bodegraven to ...

. The area of the former municipality is now almost completely covered by the lakes of the Reeuwijksche Plassen. According to the 19th-century historian A.J. van der Aa, the hamlets of Vrijhoef and Kalverbroek (or Kalverenbroek) originally were two separate small manors, but they were merged into one. The manor was property of the nearby city of Gouda between 1438Heren van Holland, "Vrijhoef met Kalverbroek"
/ref> and 1848. Between 1811 and 1817, the ''heerlijkheid'' became part of the municipality of

Stein Stein is a German, Yiddish and Norwegian word meaning "stone" and "pip" or "kernel". It stems from the same Germanic root as the English word stone. It may refer to: Places In Austria * Stein, a neighbourhood of Krems an der Donau, Lower Austr ...

; after that, it was a separate municipality until January 1, 1827, when it again was merged with Stein. In 1822, the municipality had 47 inhabitants;Hoven, Frank van den, ''De Topografische Gids van Nederland'', 1997, Filatop, Amersfoort around the middle of the 19th century, this had fallen to 24 inhabitants (7 of which in Kalverbroek), in an area of . Nowadays, most of the area is covered by two lakes: lake "Vrijhoef" and lake "Kalverbroek". Both lakes are much larger than the ''heerlijkheid'' they are named after.

References

1817 establishments in the Netherlands 1827 disestablishments Former municipalities of South Holland {{SouthHolland-geo-stub