Biervliet is a small city 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 a part of the municipality of

Terneuzen 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 mentione ...

, and lies about 16 km South of

Vlissingen Vlissingen (; zea, label=Zeelandic, Vlissienge), historically known in English as Flushing, is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the former island of Walcheren. With its strategic l ...

. Biervliet 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 1183. It was originally a fishing village which specialised in

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

. The flood of 1375 resulted in the creation of the former inlet

Braakman The Braakman was a large tidal inlet in the middle of the Dutch region of Zeelandic Flanders, on the south bank of the Westerschelde west of Terneuzen. It was created by a succession of storm surges in the 14th and 15th centuries, including the ...

, and after the St. Elizabeth's flood of 1404, Biervliet was on an island. In 1572, it was captured by the

Geuzen Geuzen (; ; french: Les Gueux) was a name assumed by the confederacy of Calvinist Dutch nobles, who from 1566 opposed Spanish rule in the Netherlands. The most successful group of them operated at sea, and so were called Watergeuzen (; ; frenc ...

. From 1619 onwards, the surrounding areas were enclosed with dikes and harbour disappeared in 1866. The

Dutch Reformed The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family an ...

Church in Biervliet has a number of intact stained windows dating from 1660 to 1661. The Catholic Our Lady Immaculate Conception church is a three-aisled

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

church which was built between 1857 and 1858 to replace the medieval Mary church. Biervliet was home to 1,860 people in 1840. Biervliet used to be an independent municipality. In 1970, it was merged into

Notable people

It is the home town of

William Buckels William Buckels, also known as Willem Beuckel, Willem Beuckelsz or William Buckelsson, and sometimes Willem Beuckelszoon by the Dutch, was a 14th-century fisherman from Biervliet, Zeeland, whose discovery of gibbing, a preservation process for h ...

(or Beuckelszoon), a 14th-century fisherman credit for inventing the process of preparing

soused herring Soused herring is raw herring soaked in a mild preserving liquid. It can be raw herring in a mild vinegar pickle or Dutch brined herring. As well as vinegar, the marinade might contain cider, wine or tea, sugar, herbs (usually bay leaf), spic ...

known as

gibbing Gibbing is the process of preparing salt herring (or soused herring), in which the gills and part of the gullet are removed from the fish, eliminating any bitter taste. The liver and pancreas are left in the fish during the salt-curing process ...

Gallery

File:Biervliet - Onze-Lieve-Vrouw Onbevlekt Ontvangenkerk 1.jpg, Our Lady Immaculate Conception church File:Markt 15.jpg, House in Biervliet File:Biervliet - De Harmonie 1.jpg, Wind mill De Harmonie File:Voor- en zijgevel, Burg.v.Maarleveldstr. 8 - Biervliet - 20034786 - RCE.jpg, Former town hall (1967)

References

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