Schalkwijk () is a small village in the Dutch province of

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

. It consists of a small village centre on the railway line between

and

's-Hertogenbosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 160,783. It is the capital of ...

and a 5 km long ribbon of farms along the small channel Schalkwijksche Wetering. The statistical district of Schalkwijk had a population of about 1650 in 2004.Statistics Netherlands (CBS), ''Gemeente Op Maat 2004: Houten'

History

According to the 19th century historian A.J. van der Aa, Schalkwijk was a ''

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

'' owned by the lords of

Culemborg Culemborg () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the centre of the Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland. The city had a population of 29,386 on 1 January 2022 and is situated just south of the Lek River, Lek ...

. In 1523, the dike of the

Lek river The Lek () is a river in the western Netherlands of some in length. It is the continuation of the Nederrijn after the Kromme Rijn branches off at the town of Wijk bij Duurstede. The main westbound waterway is hereafter called the Lek River. The ...

at Schalkwijk broke, and the village was severely damaged by the flooding. When the current municipal system was introduced in the Netherlands in 1812, Schalkwijk and

Tull en 't Waal Tull en 't Waal is a village in the Dutch province of Utrecht. Until 1962, it was a separate municipality, but now it is a part of the municipality of Houten. Originally, there were two villages: 't Waal, at the site of the present village; and T ...

merged to become a single municipality called Schalkwijk. In 1818, Tull en 't Waal became independent again, and Schalkwijk was a separate municipality until it merged with

Houten Houten () is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. Population centres The municipality consists of the following towns: * 't Goy * Houten * Schalkwijk * Tull en 't Waal Houten (town) The main town in the municipality i ...

on 1 January 1962. The municipality of Schalkwijk included the village of Schalkwijk itself and the surrounding former hamlets Rietveld, Blokhoven, and Pothuizen. Its area was . Most of the inhabitants were

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, and went to church in the St. Michael's Church in the village centre. When the railway line between

and

opened in 1868, a station was opened in Schalkwijk, but it was closed in 1935.

Born in Schalkwijk

Ruud Kuijer Ruud Kuijer (born 8 June 1959 in Schalkwijk, Utrecht, Schalkwijk) is a Dutch sculptor, particularly known for his ''Water works'', a group of seven large-scale sculptures on the strip between Isotopenweg and the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal in Utrecht, T ...

(b. 1959), sculptor

References

Populated places in Utrecht (province) Former municipalities of Utrecht (province) Houten {{Utrecht-geo-stub