Putte is part of the
Dutch municipality of
Woensdrecht, and had 3751
inhabitants as of 1 January 2008. The village lies on and extends over the border between the
Netherlands and
Belgium, the Belgian part being
Putte, Kapellen.
History
The village was first mentioned in 1277 as Pitte and means
well.
Putte developed around the 14th century which is located in Belgium, but whose park is mainly in the Netherlands. In 1839, the border was defined and the village started to develop along the border road.
In 1648, at the
Peace of Münster
The Peace of Münster was a treaty between the Lords States General of the Seven United Netherlands and the Spanish Crown, the terms of which were agreed on 30 January 1648. The treaty, parallelly negotiated to but not part of the Peace of We ...
, the border between the
Dutch Republic and the
Spanish Netherlands was drawn through the village of Putte.
The Catholic St Dionysius Church was built in 1865. The church was destroyed in 1940 by war. In 1950, the tower was rebuilt. The church was rebuilt in 1953 at a distance from the tower. The Moretusbosch is a forest which used to belong to Castle Ravenhof, and contains
hexagon Rococo tea house.
Putte was home to 671 people in 1840. During
World War I, the border was sealed off and the
Wire of Death was constructed to prevent refugees from entering the Netherlands.
The former municipality (which merged with several other communities to form the municipality of
Woensdrecht in 1997) covered 18,56 sq. kilometres, of which much is forest and moorland.
Notable people
Putte is the burial place of the 17th century
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, painter
Jacob Jordaens
Jacob (Jacques) Jordaens (19 May 1593 – 18 October 1678) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and tapestry designer known for his history paintings, genre scenes and portraits. After Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, he was the leading Fle ...
who, as a
Protestant, could not be buried in his
Roman Catholic hometown. A Jordaens monument stands on the place of the former Protestant cemetery. The village also has three extensive
Jewish cemeteries with many graves of
Belgian Jews.
The noted artist
Marguerite Wildenhain, who was forced to leave her teaching post in Germany because of her Jewish ancestry, came to Putte in 1933. She and her husband Franz established in the town a pottery shop called ''Het Kruikje'' (Little Jug) - which existed until the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, when Wildenhain was able to find refuge in the US.
Gallery
File:Stabroek Ravenhof 22.JPG, Tea house Ravenhof
File:Grenspaal 262 België-Nederland 2.jpg, Border pole #262
File:Overzicht kerktoren - Putte - 20002601 - RCE.jpg, Street view
See also
*
Putte, Kapellen
References
External links
* {{commons category-inline
Belgium–Netherlands border crossings
Municipalities of the Netherlands disestablished in 1997
Populated places in North Brabant
Former municipalities of North Brabant
Woensdrecht