With this slogan the Zeeland Tourist Board VVV is presenting the
Tholen and Sint Philipsland region on its website. Probably
suggesting that only few people know about the many outstanding
features of this area. But the best-kept secret might also
be the fact that there's not
really much worth the while around here. Both opinions cut ice.
After an earlier visit to the neighboring island of Sint
Philipsland, together with Tholen forming one
single municipality since 1995, I am inclined to the
latter. It is a real far-off corner without striking
characteristics. You will search here in vain for tourist
attractions that draw crowds of people. It's a region where life
goes on uneventfully.
What applies to Sint Philipsland also does to Tholen. Of course
it is much larger and there are some lovely little towns and
villages here, with a rich history that often goes back to the
thirteenth or fourteenth century. But they are lacking the
grandeur of towns like Middelburg, Zierikzee, Veere or Goes.
Perhaps with the exception of Tholen town that, to a certain
extent, once could rival those places. Nowadays its then
importance is still shown in the remains of the town's
fortifications and its large number of distinguished buildings, like the monumental Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk
(Our Lady's Church) and the Town Hall.
But there is not much of the 'island feeling' noticeable on
Tholen. Probably because the sea is quite a good distance away.
The mainland, just at the opposite bank of the narrow and
winding Eendracht stream, is much nearer. As it has already been
for so long.
Toll place
Like the other Zeeland islands, Tholen was shaped by the relentless
influence of the sea and of the rivers Rhine, Maas and Scheldt,
which
formed a freakish and unsettled delta here in the southwest of the
Netherlands. It was an area that was continuously changing. Yet,
people have lived here in a very early stage, which is demonstrated
by the finding of a 150,00 year-old celt near Cadzand, in the
present region of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. Certainly it looked quite
different from nowadays here by then. What it looked like is unknown, as the
first maps of the area were not drawn before the late Middle Ages.
About the beginning of our era the Romans came to this region and
established several settlements, for instance for trading with the
overseas countries. On the territory of the
present island of Tholen not much of that period has been recovered
other
than some Roman pottery in the excavated remains of a farmer's house
near the village of Poortvliet. This in contrast with places like
Walcheren and Noord-Beveland, where many archaeological
findings have proved the presence of major Roman settlements.
Apparently Tholen was not very popular with the Romans as a place to
live. Or, more likely, the island did not yet exist at all by then.
Like elsewhere in the Zeeland delta also in Tholen every trace of
habitation is absent folowing the end of the third century. Probably
the inhabitants moved away because living in this area ravaged by
storms and floods had become too hard. It wasn't before the sixth or
seventh century that people started to settle here again, mainly on
the higher grounds along the coast where it was relatively dry and
safe. On Tholen it took longer before the people returned to live
here; the oldest findings that prove their presence go back to the
beginning of the eleventh century.
|
Tholen
- |
At that time, Tholen didn't exist yet as we know it today. In its
place there was a disorderly collection of little islands that, in
the course of the ages to come, would integrate to a whole as a
result of diking. One of those islands was named Schakerloo. It was
separated from the mainland by the Henetrecht stream, in later years
corrupted to Eendracht, a branch of the river Scheldt and part of
the waterway between Antwerp and Holland. In the year 1212 AD the
Duke of Brabant, being the owner of Schakerloo, granted permission
to establish a toll for the shipping at this place. This tall was
the cradle of the present town of Tholen. In a document of 1290 the
name Toole or Tolen is mentioned for the first time. Later this name
would be used for the whole of the island.
In 1365 the Counts of Holland, who where laying down the law in this
area at that time, granted the toll place the privilege to build its
own
defensive works and one year later it was granted the full
privileges of a town. The toll collection generated substantial
earnings and the importance of the town rose. Halfway the fifteenth
century the period of flourishing was at its height. As a result of
the diking activities, the island of Tholen had reached its present size and
shape by then.
In the year 1452 a fire destroyed almost the whole town and although
most of the buildings were rebuilt the good old days would never return.
During the first half of the sixteenth century the region was
ravaged by several heavy floods that caused much damage. The
population was further decimated by an epidemic of plague and then,
to make things even worse, the Eighty Year's War came over the
country.
Tholen joined the side of the rebels led by William of Orange in
1577, as the last of the Zeeland towns. But Brabant, on the opposite
bank of the narrow Eendracht stream, remained under Spanish control
till the end of the independence war and so Tholen would be on the
frontline for several decades. In 1588 the town had to withstand an
attack by Spanish troops led by the Duke of Parma, who attempted to
set foot on the island by wading across the shallow waters of the Eendracht.
Zeeland around 1300
(published by the Zeeuwse Boekhandel at Zierikzee)
But toll revenues decreased as in the course of the years the Eendracht
was silting up, forcing the shipping traffic to find
new routes. Agriculture now became the major livelihood on the
island. In the seventeenth century the mussel culture was introduced
on Tholen by mussel farmers from Reimerswaal, who settled on the
island when their home town had to be evacuated in 1632 because of
the frequent floodings. Later, in the nineteenth century, also the
oyster culture came to Tholen, to disappear from the island again
after the severe winter of 1962-1963, when almost the entire oyster
population was eliminated by the hard frost.
In 1928 the building of the bridge across the Eendracht ended
Tholen's isolated position. Formally it was no longer an island
anymore, although plans to dam up and impolder the stream to
definitively merge Tholen into the mainland never came to
realization. On the contrary, between 1967 and 1976 the Eendracht
was canalized, deepened and widened to 120 meter. Nowadays the
former Scheldt branch is part of the Scheldt-Rhine Canal, the major
waterway between the Antwerp docks and the Rhine. As the water
separating Tholen from the mainland remained, it is still more or
less an island, to this very day.
Zeeland around 1650
(source: ThinkQuest)
The realization of the Delta Project (see the
Neeltje Jans page for details)
had less impact on Tholen as on other Zeeland islands like
Schouwen-Duiveland and Noord-Beveland. As a result of the
decision made in 1979 to build a storm surge barrier with
movable floodgates in the Eastern Scheldt instead of total closure
with a massive dam, things didn't change very much on
Tholen. The island remained surrounded by the salt tidal waters of
the Eastern Scheldt, as it always had been. The separation between
the saltwater and the freshwater environment was made more to the
north, at Sint Philipsland, with the construction of the Grevelingen
Dam and the Philips Dam. But as part of the Delta Project all the
outer dikes on Tholen were reinforced and raised to comply with the
new safety standards.
At the landward side of Tholen, however, big changes took place as a
result of the realization of the so-called 'compartment works' of
the Delta Project. This extension of the original project was needed
to maintain the desired tidal movement in the Eastern Scheldt after
the construction of the storm surge barrier, which would narrow the
inlet's mouth and reduce the amount of water flowing in and out with
every tide cycle. To compensate for that, the Eastern Scheldt's
water area was effectively reduced by the construction of two dams:
the Philips Dam, connecting the Grevelingen Dam with Sint
Philipsland, and the Oesterdam (Oyster Dam) between Tholen and
Zuid-Beveland. Also these works have been described in detail on the
Neeltje Jans page.
Zeeland around 1930
Source: Kleine Bosatlas
The realization of the 'compartment works' coincided with the
construction of the Scheldt-Rhine Canal. The Philips Dam improved
the accessibility of Sint Philipsland from the Rotterdam side and
also Tholen took advantage of that, as a new connection between Sint
Philipsland and Tholen, the Krabbenkreek Dam, was built on the west
bank of the Scheldt-Rhine Canal. And the Oesterdam provided a
shortcut to Zuid-Beveland as the detour via the mainland was no
longer necessary.
Finally, with two new bridges spanning the Scheldt-Rhine Canal
Tholen also got better connections with the Brabant mainland: one
between the villages of Oud- and Nieuw-Vossemeer and another at
Tholen town, replacing the old Eendracht bridge of
1928. Now the former island is easily accessible from
all sides.
Tholen
in
Google Earth
(click on the image to enlarge)
A Tholen round trip in 1 day
I travel to Tholen along the same route that I took earlier to Sint
Philipsland, from the north along the Grevelingen Dam, the Philips
Dam and te impressive Krammer sluices. The Philips Dam is nicknamed 'Birds Boulevard' because of the large numbers of bird
watchers that normally can be seen here. But today, on this sunny
morning in July, there are hardly any. Maybe they all went on
vacation!
Before entering Sint Philipsland at the ugly concrete
water tower, I turn left in southerly direction to the Krabbenkreek
Dam road, opened in 1973 and connecting Sint Philipsland with
Tholen. At my right hand side lies the Krabbenkreek (Crab Creek),
the water that separates the two former islands and that is in open
connection with the Eastern Scheldt.
At my left hand side, between the dam and the Scheldt-Rhine Canal,
lies the Rammegors area. It was originally intended as a depot to
store silt resulting from the excavations for the Scheldt-Rhine
Canal. But to everyone's surprise a very interesting nature
reserve has spontaneously developed here, abundant with birds. Now
there are people who regret that the Rammegors was cut off from the
saltwater tidal environment after the construction of the dam. They
argue the necessity of making a breach in it to allow the salt water and the tide into the Rammegors again.
Some people are never satisfied!
Along the Krabbenkreek Dam it's just 2 km from Sint Philipsland to
Tholen, quite an improvement compared with the detour via the
mainland that you had to make before. Within minutes I arrive
on Tholen and I head for the first village to visit, Oud-Vossemeer.
This place has some international reputation, being the birthplace
of the ancestors of the immensely popular American presidential
family of Roosevelt (Theodore and his cousin Franklin Delano). At
the beginning of the seventeenth century they emigrated to the
United States. In 1950 president Franklin D. Roosevelt's widow
Eleanor paid a visit to Oud-Vossemeer.
|
|
In the town center stands the 'Four Freedoms' monument of 1982, referring to FDR's inauguration speech of 6 January 1941 in which the mentioned the four basic freedoms of man: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. These four freedoms are generally considered to be the precursor of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948. |
< click on an image to enlarge
|
Nearby the 'Four Freedoms' monument is the beautiful 'Ambachtsherenhuis' of 1771. It is sometimes referred to as the 'Roosevelt House', because the Roosevelts' family coat of arms is kept here. However, they have never lived in this house; more than that, they had emigrated to the U.S. long before it was built. The house has been used as the local court house until 1806 and later, until 1953, as the Town Hall. |
|
On the façade of the former forge in the Voorstraat a most charming
clockwork with moving figures can be seen. It was made between 1780
and 1786 by the blacksmith Johannis Verkerke and completely restored
in 1980. There's a man with a hammer striking the hours on the large
bell; at the half hours another man pops up from behind a little
door to strike the small bell.
From Oud-Vossemeer I set off in northwesterly direction to the next
stop on my Tholen round trip, the village of Sint-Annaland or
Stalland, as the local people say. The village was founded by Anna
of Burgundy, Lady of Ravestein. She was a bastard daughter of Philip
of Burgundy, well-known as Philip the Good. In 1475 her half-brother
Charles the Bold granted her permission to impolder some salt
marshes in the Tholen area. In the newly-formed polder she founded
the village in 1476 and -being a very religious woman- named
it after her patron saint Anna, the mother of St. Mary.
In 1575, in the midst of the Eighty Years War, the Spanish governor
Don Luis de Requesens planned to capture the port of Zierikzee,
strategically situated on the island of Schouwen-Duiveland. At
Sint-Annaland he gathered a thousand of his tallest soldiers with the
intention of crossing over to Schouwen-Duiveland by wading through
the water via the salt marshes of nowadays Sint Philipsland. In the
night of the 25th of September a bloody battle developed under the
eyes of hundreds of spectators on the dike, between the Geuzen
(Beggars) on their small boats, armed with muskets, hooks and clubs
at one side, and the Spanish soldiers, standing in the water right
up to their waist, on the other side. Many were killed, but yet a
number of the Spaniards got across and after a siege that lasted nine months
they finally succeeded to take Zierikzee. But then it turned out
that the town's harbor was totally unfit for the large Spanish ships
and all effort had been for nothing!
Like many Zeeland towns Sint-Annaland is a ring town. Its center is
formed by the Ring, a circular street with the church in the middle.
The present Reformed church was built in 1899 at the place of the
original, 15th-century St Anna's church. The Voorstraat connects
the Ring with the harbor. In 1960 the old harbor was closed and
filled in, as it formed a weak spot in the coastal defense. A new
marina was opened in 1965, giving direct access to the open waters
of the Eastern Scheldt.
|
The miracle of |
|
|
|
|
|
From Sint-Annaland I drive further west towards Stavenisse, the most
westerly place on Tholen. The name Stavenisse is already mentioned
in a charter of 1206. By then it was situated on a small
island that was swallowed by the sea during a heavy storm in 1509.
It took almost a century before the area was reclaimed
again. The present Stavenisse was founded in 1599.
In 1616 the village got a church; that was after the Reformation
took place and so it was one of the first churches in
Zeeland that was built from the start as a protestant church. That
church of 1616 doesn't exist anymore; it was torn down in 1910 and
replaced by the present building. But the tower, dating from 1672,
has survived.
As mentioned before Stavenisse was struck harder than any other
place on Tholen during the flood disaster of 1953. In the center of
the village the water rose to a level of 3.5 meter. Almost 10% of
the population perished, as well as almost all livestock, and 140
homes were completely destroyed. Detail information and photographs
of the flood disaster in Stavenisse can be found on the website of
Ko
van Oeveren, a local resident who witnessed the event as a young
boy.
One of the weak spots where the water poured into the village in
1953 was the harbor. It was logical that directly after the disaster
plans were made to dam up the one kilometer-long harbor channel and
close the harbor. That plan, however, met strong opposition and
finally it was decided to raise and reinforce the dikes along the
channel instead. At its mouth a sluice was built in 1977, which
closes automatically at water levers exceeding 2.40 meters above
normal. The present marina counts 163 berths and was opened in 1979.
|
The
flag of Tholen |
|
|
|
|
|
In Stavenisse I have reached the most westerly point on my round
trip of Tholen, so from here it goes eastward again. My next stop is
the town og Sint-Maartensdijk, named after St Martin and called "Smerdiek"
by the locals. The name "Sinte Martensdike" is mentioned
for the first time in a charter of 1357.
In the 14th and the 15th century the manor of Sint-Maartensdijk
belonged to the properties of the Zeeland noble family of Van
Borssele. On of the family's best-known members was Frank van Borssele, who married the Dutch countess Jacoba van Beieren in 1433.
His sister, Alienora van Borssele, granted the place the privileges
of a town in 1485. In contrast, however, with places like
Middelburg, Goes or Tholen, Sint-Maartensdijk was a so-called 'small
town', which meant that it had no vote in the States of Zeeland.
|
|
In the 16th century the manor came into the possession of prince Philip of Nassau, the eldest son of William of Orange. It marked the beginning of a relationship with the Oranges that still exists; 'Lady of Sint-Maartensdijk' is one of the many titles of queen Beatrix. Stadtholder Frederick Henry ordered in 1628 the building of the monumental Town Hall on the Markt, where a collection of 17th-century portraits of members of the Orange House is kept. |
|
The town's oldest building is St Martin's church, a nice late-gothic cross-shaped basilica, its oldest parts dating from about 1400 AD. A curiosity is the fact that its tower houses as much as two carillons, a 17th-century and a 20th-century one. The castle where Frank van Borssele and Jacoba van Beieren once lived has been torn down completely in 1819. Also nothing of the town's former defensive works has survived. |
|
Only two kilometers east of Sint-Maartensdijk lies the village of
Scherpenisse, the oldest settlement on Tholen. "Scarpenesse" is
already mentioned in a document of 1206. In the vicinity of the
village, near the hamlet of Westkerke, lies a 7 meters-high 'vliedberg',
a man-made refuge mound where the residents could find shelter in
case of floods in the ages before the first dikes where built. This
is the last of nine of these refuge mounds that once existed on
Tholen; all the other ones have been
leveled in the course of time.
|
|
The most striking building in Scherpenisse is the church, before the Reformation devoted to the Holy Virgin Mary. The choir is 15th century; the nave first half of the 16th. The sturdy tower, rising only slightly above the nave, was never completed. Probably because of lack of money, but according to another explanation already during construction it threatened to collapse, reason why it was provided with a light-weight wooden superstructure. |
From Scherpenisse it goes further eastward to Poortvliet, just four
kilometer away. Early in the 13th century there was a castle
situated here; in archive documents there is mention of a certain "Lambertus,
castellanus (lord of the castle) de Portvliete". Of this castle,
nothing remains today.
Poortvliet is a genuine ring village, with the church in the center
as it should be. It is situated in the largest and one of the oldest
polders of Tholen. As the surface level is rather low here, this
polder was always bothered by water control problems, making it less
suitable for arable farming than elsewhere on the island. That's the
reason why we find mainly pastureland around Poortvliet.
|
The organ of Poortvliet |
|
The church, devoted to St Pancras before the Reformation, is the most important monument of the village. The tower is the oldest part, going back to around 1350; the nave is 15th century. During the Eighty Years War the church was destroyed by fire, but it was rebuilt in 1585. Later on the choir and part of the transept were torn down, which seriously affected the appearance of this handsome gothic church. |
|
Before continuing to Tholen town where I will end my island tour I make a small excursion to the Oesterdam (Oyster Dam). Here,
on Tholen's south side, a rather complicated part of the Delta
Project was realized between 1979 and 1989. First the Oesterdam
itself, with a length of over 11 kilometer the longest of all dams
in the whole project.
The dam forms the easterly border of the Eastern Scheldt and reduced the inlet's water area with 1,000 hectares after its
completion. That was necessary for maintaining the desired tidal
movement in the Eastern Scheldt after the construction of the storm
surge barrier. The building of the Oesterdam, together with the
Philips Dam, resulted in an increase of the high water level in the
Eastern Scheldt of almost 3 meters, which meant that the oyster
culture of Yerseke could survive. That's the reason why this dam was
named Oyster Dam.
|
East of the Oesterdam and mainly running parallel to it lies the Markiezaatskade, a secondary dam that was built between 1981 and 1983 to facilitate the construction of the Oesterdam. The water between the two dams is called Zoommeer and is part of the Scheldt-Rhine waterway. The lake east of the dam is the Markiezaatsmeer, an important freshwater reservoir for the water control in the western part of Brabant. |
|
From the Oesterdam I drive back to the island for the final stage to
Tholen town, which lent its name to the whole island. Tholen was
granted privileges of a town in 1366 already, after it got the
privilege to build defensive work a year earlier. With a population
of over 6,600 it also is the largest settlement and can be
rightfully regarded as the 'capital' of Tholen, although the local
administration has its seat in Sint-Maartensdijk since 1979. About
the history of Tholen town much is already said earlier on this
page.
|
|
Around 1600, when the Eighty Years War was sweeping the country and the Spaniards controlled Brabant, on the opposite bank of the Eendracht, the defensive works of Tholen were largely extended and reinforced. Not much of these fortifications have left. In the 19th century all gates, walls and bulwarks were torn down. Only at the landward side the town's moat and the ramparts still remain and form a shady promenade walk today. |
|
The Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk (Our Lady's Church) clearly shows that Tholen once was a town of certain importance. Its tower was built in 1375 and raised in 1450. The construction of the nave, aisles, the choir and the transept was started in 1400. In the second half of the 16th century a choir aisle was added that, however, was never completed, as in 1578 the church passed into the hands of the Protestants. |
|
|
|
The Town Hall in the Hoogstraat (High Street) dates from 1460 and is one of the town's major monuments. It was built at the place of the old Town Hall that was destroyed in the great fire of 1452. It was probably designed by the Flemish architect Andries Kelderman, who also built the famous Town Hall of Middelburg. Its bell tower has a carillon with 37 bells; one of them, from 1486, is the oldest carillon bell in the Netherlands. |
In medieval Tholen town my round trip of Tholen ends. It was a bit
too much for just one day. I think that I've got a fair impression
of the island, but not more than that. If you really want to know
Tholen better you will have to spend more time. The best way to do
it is by exploring the island by bike or on foot. The quiet roads
and the relatively short distances are perfectly suitable for that.
The real 'island feeling', however, is not very present here, that
feeling of being completely cut off from the outside world. Maybe
that is because the sea always was quite far away from here and the
mainland, on the other hand, so close by. Surely when the bridge
across the Eendracht came, in 1928. Yet, the hurried, hectic life of
the 21st century in a densely populated country doesn't seem to have
fully pervaded here. Just like Sint Philipsland, Tholen is a quiet
far-off corner where things are calmly going well enough.
But wherever you are standing in the vast, flat polder land, almost
always you see the dike surrounding the island, remembering you
continuously of the fact that all of this land was reclaimed from
the sea in the course of the centuries.
More about Tholen and related information
www.tholen.nl
Official website of the Tholen Municipality. Dutch language only.
The site doesn't seem to work well with the Mozilla Firefox
browser.
www.zeeland.nl
Official website of the Province of Zeeland, to which
Tholen belongs. Dutch language, with some content in
English, French and German.
www.vvvzeeland.nl/regios/tholen
Website of the VVV (Tourist Office) Zeeland, Tholen and Sint
Philipsland region. English,
German and French language versions available.
www.tholenweb.nl
Portal site of the Digital Region Tholen with many links to
informative and commercial websites. Dutch language only.
tholen.startpagina.nl
Tholen portal site with many links.
www.deltawerken.com
Website about the Delta Project by the Delta Works Foundation Online. Dutch and English versions
available.
people.zeelandnet.nl/voeveren
Private website by Ko van Oeveren with much details and
photographs of the flood disaster of 1953 in Stavenisse. Dutch
and English versions.
July
2006