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Oudewater

Oudewater is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands.

History
The origin of the town of Oudewater is obscure and no information has been found concerning the first settlement of citizens. It is also difficult to recover the name of Oudewater. One explanation is that the name is a corruption of old water-meadow. Oudewater was an important border city between Holland and Utrecht. Oudewater (lit. "Old water") was of great strategic importance.

The town was granted city rights in 1265 by Hendrik van Vianden, the bishop of Utrecht.

Oudewater took its place in the First Free States council in Dordrecht on 19 July 1572, Oudewater was one of the twelve cities taking part in the first free convention of the States General in Dordrecht. This was a meeting that laid down the origin of the State of the Netherlands, as we know it now, under the leadership of the House of Orange. This happened at the beginning of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) when the Netherlands were still part of the Spanish Empire. After a Siege of Oudewater, the city was conquered by the Spanish on 7 August 1575, and most of its inhabitants were killed, including the family of famous Oudewater native and Protestant theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609).

In the 16th and 17th century, Oudewater was an important producer of rope. In the surrounding area, hemp was cultivated. There still is a rope manufacturing plant and a rope museum in the town.

In 1970 the municipality of Oudewater moved from the province of South Holland to the province of Utrecht.

Geography
Oudewater is located at in the southwest of the province of Utrecht in the center of the Netherlands. It is situated where the Linschoten river flows out in the Hollandse IJssel.

Oudewater is bordered by the municipalities of Montfoort (in the northeast), Lopik (southeast), Krimpenerwaard (southwest), and Bodegraven-Reeuwijk (northwest).

The municipality of Oudewater consists of the following cities, towns, villages and/or districts: Diemerbroek, Hekendorp, Hoenkoop, Lange Linschoten, Oudewater, Papekop, Ruigeweide, and Snelrewaard.

Buildings

Oudewater is famous for the Heksenwaag (Witches' scales). The weighing house, an official town building, became famous at the height of the European witch trials of the 16th century because people accused of witchcraft were offered a fair chance to prove their innocence, unlike in many other places, where the scales were rigged.

From all over Europe, people made the journey to Oudewater to avoid prosecution. After the weighing, they received an official certificate proclaiming them not a witch. Nobody was ever found to be an actual witch in Oudewater, though the weighings were still a public spectacle. Certificates would state that "the body weight is in proportion to its build". The reasoning behind this is the old belief that a witch has no soul and therefore weighs significantly less than an ordinary person; this distinction would supposedly allow the witch to fly on a broomstick. The weighings can be seen as a sign of the growing power of the citizenry as a third force next to that of the church and nobility. In giving out these certificates, the citizens of Oudewater, therefore, were defying the church.

The Waag is still open as a tourist attraction, and official certificates are available.

The town hall dates from 1588 and features a stork's nest. Oudewater has a monumental protected city centre with more than 250 protected houses. The church, now Protestant, dates from the 15th century. Its tower is from about 1300. During the religious wars, until the sacking of Oudewater, both Roman Catholics and Protestants used this church. Thereafter Catholics were still tolerated (the Spanish occupiers being Catholic) but more in low profile.

In fiction
Oudewater is the setting for the 1975 novel Das Geheimnis des Baron Oudewater set in the 16th century, when the Netherlands was fighting for its independence from Spain. Written by the German author Alberta Rommel, it has been described as a romantic historical novel.

The 2014 film Reckless was filmed in Oudewater.

Notable people

 * Albert van Ouwater (ca.1410/1415 – 1475) an early artist of Early Netherlandish painting working in the Northern Netherlands
 * Gerard David (ca.1460–1523) an Early Netherlandish painter and manuscript illuminator, used brilliant colour
 * Rudolph Snellius (1546–1613) a Dutch linguist and mathematician, a political and intellectual force of the Dutch Golden Age
 * Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) a Dutch theologian, formed Arminianism and the Dutch Remonstrant movement
 * Hendrikus Albertus Lorentz (1871–1944) a Dutch explorer in New Guinea and diplomat in South Africa
 * Jan Montyn (1924–2015) a Dutch artist, specialized in etching
 * Wim Klever (born 1930 in Snelrewaard) a Dutch scholar of the Jewish Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza
 * Dirk de Ridder (born 1972) a sailor, competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics

title: Oudewater


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Renswoude

Renswoude is a municipality and a town in the central Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht.

Topography

Dutch Topographic map of the municipality of Renswoude, June 2015

Notable people

 * Jan Hendrik Waszink (1908–1990) a Dutch Latin scholar and academic
 * Roel Robbertsen (born 1948) a Dutch politician and pig farmer
 * Henk-Jan Held (born 1967) a volleyball player, team silver medallist at the 1992 Summer Olympics and team gold medallist at the 1996 Summer Olympics
 * Maarten Van Garderen (born 1990) a Dutch male volleyball player, member of the Netherlands men's national volleyball team

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Renswoude


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Rhenen

Rhenen is a municipality and a city in the central Netherlands. The municipality also includes the villages of Achterberg, Remmerden, Elst and Laareind. The town lies at a geographically interesting location, namely on the southernmost part of the chain of hills known as the Utrecht Hill Ridge (Utrechtse Heuvelrug), where this meets the river Rhine. Because of this Rhenen has a unique character with quite some elevation through town.

Directly to the east of the built-up area lies the Grebbeberg, a hill with a top elevation of about 50 m.

Before 1900
Rhenen received city rights probably between 1256 and 1258. In 1346, the bishop of Utrecht ordered the construction of a defensive wall around the city, which was important because it lay near the border with Guelders. Although for some time the town collected toll from ships on the Rhine, it has never had a harbour. The three city gates were demolished in 1840. Small fragments of the wall remain.

The town is also famous for the Cunera Church, parts of which date back to the 15th century. Containing the relics of Saint Cunera, it attracted many pilgrims. Legend has it that Cunera was buried on a nearby hill now called the Cuneraheuvel. The church's tower was built between 1492 and 1531.

Between 1630 and 1631, the Koningshuis palace was constructed at Rhenen for the ousted Frederick V. It was demolished in 1812.

World War II
Part of the center of Rhenen, which was located near the defensive Grebbelinie (Grebbe line), was destroyed during the German attack on the Netherlands in May 1940. Part of the reconstruction took place during the war. In 1945, the town was damaged again during the liberation of the country from German occupation.

Many or all of the Dutch soldiers who were killed by the Germans near Rhenen lie buried at the Erebegraafplaats (Cemetery of Honor), located along the Grebbeweg (N 225) near the top of the Grebbeberg. Across the road is an important war monument with a poem by J.C. Bloem.

In 2008 Rhenen celebrated its 750th anniversary.

Main sights

 * Ouwehands Dierenpark, a zoo, founded in 1932.
 * The Cunera Church, a late-Gothic hall-church, built between 1492 and 1531.
 * Modern Roman Catholic church Gedachteniskerk (Rhenen), built between 1958 and 1959.
 * Building 'De Brakke' from 1787.
 * Ruins of the 14th century Medieval defensive wall.
 * The Binnenmolen (Rhenen), a round gristmill from 1893.
 * The Prattenburg estate.
 * Military War Cemetery Grebbeberg, a military cemetery on the Grebbeberg.

Transport

 * Rhenen railway station

Municipal Council
The Municipal council (Netherlands) of Rhenen consists of 19 members sinds March 2022

Municipal Executive
The Municipal Executive of Rhenen in for the council term of 2022-2026 consists of:

Hans van der Pas (PvdA) left his position as mayor March 7, 2024
 * Corry van Rhee-Oud Ammerveld (PvdA), Acting mayor of Rhenen
 * Gert van Laar (SGP), Alderman for the physical domain
 * Dick Poortinga (Rhenens Belang), Alderman for welfare and sports, economy and recreation & tourism
 * Hans Boerkamp (D66), Alderman for Finance, mobility, education and youth
 * Bert Fintelman (CDA), Alderman for rural/agricultural areas, sustainability and nature.

Notable people

 * Frederick V (1596–1632), Count Palatine and Elector of the Palatinate from 1610 to 1623 and King of Bohemia (as Frederick I) from 1619 to 1620
 * Giedo van der Garde (born 1985), a Dutch racing driver
 * Madelein Meppelink (born 1989), a Dutch beach volleyball player, competed in the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics
 * Jacob Nienhuys (1836–1927), founded the tobacco producer Deli Company in Sumatra
 * Remy Reynierse (born 1961), is a former football player with 312 club caps, current coach at Sheffield Wednesday F.C.
 * Bibiane Schoofs (born 1988), a Dutch professional tennis player
 * Jacobus Tollius (1633–1696), a Dutch classicist
 * Eelco Uri (born 1973), a Dutch male former water polo player, competed in the 1966 and 2000 Summer Olympics
 * Lisa van Viegen (born 1978), stage name iET, a Dutch singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist
 * Nico Drost (born 1980), a Dutch Member of Parliament

title: Rhenen


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Soest, Netherlands

Soest is a municipality and town in the central Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. It is about 6 km west of Amersfoort.

Population centres
• Boerenstreek

• De Eng Soest Midden

• 't Hart Soestdijk

• Klaarwater

• Overhees

• Smitsveen

• Soestduinen

• Soesterberg

• Soest-Zuid

The town of Soest
The oldest documents mentioning Soest (then written as Zoys) date from 1029. Its oldest church (the Oude Kerk, meaning Old Church), which is still in use today, dates from the fifteenth century. Traces of earlier habitation are found though. The area of "Hees", now at the outskirts of Soest may date in to the Early Middle Ages, and prehistoric burial mounds in the Soesterduinen point to early habitation in this area.

Agricultural activity is still visible as there is much farmland within Soest. The biggest area is in the center of the town, on a hill, and are called 'de Engh'. A small street is het Kerkpad (literally, the Church Path). The Soesterduinen (sand dunes), is a popular area for recreation.

Numerous churches depict the Calvinist/Catholic tradition of Soest and the region. Christengemeente Soest, Wilhelmina Kerk Soest, Gereformeerde Kerk Vrijgemaakt, Emmakerk and the Evangelische Kerk Soest are the main churches.

Soest Duinen, meaning Soest Dunes, a small town between Soest and Soesterberg contains acres upon acres of sand dunes named the Lange Duinen (meaning the long dunes).

Currently some 50,000 inhabitants live in Soest, consisting mainly of commuters.

Transport
Soest has three railway stations:
 * Soestdijk
 * Soest
 * Soest Zuid

The biggest of the three is Soest Zuid.

Soest can be reached by train from Utrecht (every half-hour, xx:06 and xx:36) and Baarn (xx:22 and xx:52); all trains stop at the three stations. The station of Soestduinen, situated between Utrecht Centraal and Amersfoort Centraal, was closed in 1998, after being in use for 135 years. It is now a restaurant.

The stations that can be reached directly from Soest are:
 * Baarn
 * Den Dolder
 * Bilthoven
 * Utrecht Overvecht
 * Utrecht Centraal

Soest has a number of bus stops and three bus lines, all of which leave from the bus station at Soest Zuid exactly at the half-hour. Line 70 however, travel both directions to Amersfoort and Hilversum. Line 74 travels within the town of Soest. And multiple others travel through Soest. (272 Bunschoten-Spakenburg to Uithof, Utrecht vv. More info found at 9292ov.nl for all the public transport connections

Notable people

 * Gerard Soest (c. 1600 – 1681) portrait painter who was active in England

 * Prince Alexander of the Netherlands (1818–1848) second son to King William II and Queen Anna Paulovna
 * Dirk Jan de Geer (1870–1960) politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands 1926-1929 and 1939-1940
 * Frida Vogels (born 1930) writer, lives in Bologna
 * Ed van den Heuvel (born 1940) astronomer
 * Marlous Fluitsma (born 1946) actress
 * Peter Kooy (born 1954) bass singer specializing in baroque music
 * Jack Wouterse (born 1957) actor
 * Thomas von der Dunk (born 1961) cultural historian, writer and columnist
 * Janine Jansen (born 1978) a violinist and violist
 * Mirik Milan (born 1981) former Amsterdam Night Mayor

Sport

 * Robert Roest (born 1969) footballer
 * Jolanda Elshof (born 1975) retired female volleyball player
 * Bianca van den Hoek (born 1976) professional racing cyclist
 * Richard van Zijtveld (born 1979) former darts player
 * Daniël Stellwagen (born 1987) chess grandmaster
 * Daan Huizing (born 1990) professional golfer

Sport
There are four football clubs in Soest: SEC, VV Hees, SO Soest and VVZ '49. Soesterberg has its own football club, VV 't Vliegdorp.

Twin towns – sister cities
Soest is twinned with:
 * 🇩🇪 Soest, Germany, since 2004

title: Soest, Netherlands


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Veenendaal

Veenendaal is a municipality and a town in central Netherlands, located in the province of Utrecht. Veenendaal is the only population centre within its administrative borders. The municipality had a population of 68.525 inhabitants on 1 January 2023 and covers an area of undefined km2.

History
The original village was founded in the middle of the 16th century as a peat colony from which it got its name. Veen is the Dutch word for fen and daal for dale.

The village was administratively part of two nearby towns, which were themselves part of two different provinces of the Dutch Republic. The southern half belonged to Rhenen in Utrecht, the northeastern half to Ede in Guelders. In 1795, with the arrival of French troops in the country and inspired by the ideas of the French Revolution, the citizens declared their independence. When turmoil of the Napoleonic era was settled and the Netherlands was reformed as a monarchy, only the southern part would retain its independence.

In the 19th century, wool and tobacco industry became Veenendaal's largest source of income. Big factories dominated the otherwise small rural town.

In 1855, Veenendaal was hit by a flood, which caused many residents to flee to Utrecht. A monument was erected near the railway station.

In 1960 the northern part of town, still controlled by Ede, was merged with the self-governing part of town. Further lands of Rhenen and also Renswoude were ceded to allow for new housing developments. The population grew rapidly from about 10,000 in the 1920s, to 23,000 in 1960, to the 68,000+ inhabitants of today.

In 1997 the town was elected the greenest city in Europe and in 2004 of the Netherlands.

Like most Dutch cities, Veenendaal is well adapted to the high number of cyclists. A large network of bike paths make it convenient to cycle to various destinations and within the town, the bike is a popular mean of transportation. In 2000 and 2020, Veenendaal was chosen as Fietsstad of the year, recognised as being the top city for cycling in the Netherlands.

Religion
The city is known for being one of the bigger cities within the Dutch Bible Belt (together with Ede and Kampen), as it is inhabited by a considerable number (though not a majority) of conservative Protestants.

Notable residents

 * Antonie Aris van de Loosdrecht (1885-1917) a Dutch missionary to the Dutch East Indies
 * Kees Stip (1913-2001) a Dutch epigram poet
 * Bram van Ojik (born 1954) a Dutch politician, diplomat and activist
 * Roelof Bisschop (born 1956) a Dutch historian and politician, Veenendaal municipal councillor 1986 to 2007
 * Stef Bos (born 1961) a Dutch singer who lives in Cape Town, South Africa
 * Frits Wester (born 1962) a Dutch journalist, political analyst on Dutch TV
 * Jan Engelaar (born 1968) stage name DJ Jean, a Dutch disc jockey
 * Carla Dik-Faber (born 1971) a Dutch art historian and politician, Veenendaal municipal councillor 2003 to 2010
 * Yuri Landman (born 1973) experimental musical instrument builder
 * Bas Oskam (born 1980) stage name Noisecontrollers, a Dutch DJ and hardstyle music producer
 * Sandra Beckerman (born 1983) a Dutch MP
 * Joram Metekohy (born 1983) stage name Wildstylez, a Dutch hardstyle DJ and record producer
 * Willem Rebergen (born 1985) stage name Headhunterz, a Dutch DJ and record producer
 * Nicky Romero (born 1989) a Dutch musician, DJ, record producer and remixer

Sport

 * Linda Faber (born 1960) a former freestyle swimmer, competed at the 1976 Summer Olympics
 * Marco van den Berg (born 1965) a Dutch retired basketball player and current coach
 * Harry van der Meer (born 1973) a former water polo forward who participated in three Summer Olympics
 * Barry Ditewig (born 1977) a Dutch football goalkeeper with over 400 club caps
 * Botic van de Zandschulp (born 1995) a tennis player currently ranked first among Dutch men
 * Dylan van Baarle (born 1992) a Dutch cyclist currently driving for Jumbo-Visma
 * Anouar El Azzouzi (born 2001) a Moroccan Dutch Football player that plays for PEC Zwolle
 * Oussama El Azzouzi (born 2001) a Moroccan Dutch Football Player that plays for Bologna FC 1909

title: Veenendaal


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Vianen

Vianen is a city and a former municipality in the central Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. It is located south of the Lek river. Before 2002 it was part of the province of South Holland. Vianen is made up of a historic town centre that dates back to the medieval period and was once surrounded by a defensive wall (parts of which still stand today) and moat, as well as more extensive modern housing developments to the east, south and southwest and an industrial and commercial area. Vianen is intersected by two major motorways leading to the city of Utrecht: the A2 (Amsterdam-Maastricht) and the A27 (Breda-Almere). The municipality was merged with the municipalities of Leerdam and Zederik on 1 January 2019. The name of the new municipality is Vijfheerenlanden which is part of the Utrecht province.

The city of Vianen
Vianen received city rights in 1337. Vianen thrived under the counts of Brederode, who acquired its lordship through marriage early in the 15th century. It formed a self-proclaimed sovereign seignory till 1795, including Vianen, Lexmond, Hei- en Boeicop and Meerkerk. During the Middle Ages, as a "free city," Vianen could be a haven for felons and escaped serfs. Of the three castles built during the town's history, Batestein Castle was said to be one of the most beautiful in the Netherlands. Its only remnants are a 17th-century brick gate and water-pump. Remnants of the old city wall are visible girdling parts of the old downtown.

Vianen celebrates its city rights every year in October with a traditional horse market. Besides the horses there are also other activities on this day, such as a fair and market and traditional Dutch games.

Notable residents

 * Frans van Brederode (1465 - 1490), military leader
 * Nicolaas Heinsius the Elder (1620 - 1681), classical scholar and diplomat
 * Marie Adrienne Françoise de Noailles, Marquise de La Fayette (1759–1807), married to French General Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette. Lived in Vianen in 1799, when her husband was released from imprisonment in Prussia but was not allowed to return to France.
 * Marian van de Wal (born 1970), singer
 * Jeannette Lewin (born 1972), hockey player
 * Ridouan Taghi (born 1977), Moroccan-Dutch criminal, lived in Vianen during his childhood before becoming a leader of the Moroccan mafia.
 * Joaquín Martínez (1930 - 2012), Mexican-born film and television actor, lived in Everdingen

title: Vianen


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Wijk bij Duurstede

Wijk bij Duurstede is a municipality and a city in the central Netherlands.

Population centres

 * Cothen
 * Langbroek
 * Wijk bij Duurstede

Topography

Dutch Topographic map of the municipality of Wijk bij Duurstede, 2013.

City
The city (population as of 2007: 23,377) is located on the Rhine. At Wijk bij Duurstede, the Kromme Rijn (Crooked Rhine) branches off, and the main branch is called Lek River downstream from Wijk bij Duurstede.

The name 'Wijk bij Duurstede' means 'Neighbourhood by Duurstede'. Duurstede is the name of the nearby castle/ruin, also called Dorestad, where the bishop of Utrecht used to live. Wijk bij Duurstede is the former location of Dorestad, an important Frisian trade settlement during Carolingian times that was pillaged around 850 by the Vikings.

Wijk bij Duurstede has the only drive-through wind mill in the world. The mill is often confused with the mill that was made famous by Ruisdael's 1670 painting The windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede, but that mill no longer exists (its foundations can still be seen a couple of blocks away from the remaining mill). At the market place of Wijk bij Duurstede is one of the few church towers in the Netherlands with a flat roof, as built because the bishop could not afford to build a spire. Inside the tower a picture displays the planned construction of the tower. The tower was supposed to become higher than the Domtoren in Utrecht.

Wijk bij Duurstede received city rights in 1300.

Notable people

 * Rorik of Dorestad (ca.810– ca.880) Danish Viking who ruled over parts of Frisia 841-873
 * Dirck van Baburen (ca.1595–1624) painter of the Utrecht School
 * Thomas van Rhee (1634–1701) colonial administrator, 13th Governor of Dutch Ceylon
 * Dirk Fock (1858–1941) politician and diplomat, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies 1921–1926
 * Gerrit Achterberg (1905–1962) poet
 * Everhardus Jacobus Ariëns (1918–2002) pharmacologist and academic
 * Johannes Alphonsus Huisman (1919-2003), philologist
 * Dick Kooijman (born 1972) footballer with 322 club caps

title: Wijk bij Duurstede


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Woerden

Woerden is a city and a municipality in central Netherlands. Due to its central location between Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht, and the fact that it has rail and road connections to those cities, it is a popular town for commuters who work in those cities.

History
The river Oude Rijn used to flow through the city center of Woerden, but in 1960 the old river was diverted around the city center. The city has a long and rich history in cheese making and trading; for years Gouda cheese for domestic and international use has been produced in this region. Woerden still holds its authentic (since 1885) cheese market at the market place in its center.

Roman castellum

Woerden is situated on the river Oude Rijn, near the confluence with the former stream. The lower stretch of the Linschoten stream from Montfoort and Linschoten to Woerden silted up a long time ago and its flow was diverted through the Lek and Hollandse IJssel rivers, but at one time it was an important branch of the Rhine delta, connecting the Lower Rhine from Wijk bij Duurstede to the Oude Rijn near Woerden. Near the former confluence was an area that was slightly more elevated than the surroundings, a natural levee, which — in an area that is prone to flooding — made it an attractive location for settlement.

Here, at the highest spot, the Romans built a castellum (Castellum Laurum), as part of the limes of the Roman Empire and thus part of the defense lines of the northern border of the Roman Empire. The first castellum was built in the 40s AD and was destroyed in 69 AD during the Batavian rebellion. In 70 AD, the castellum was rebuilt, and the Romans remained until 402 AD, with an interruption lasting from about 275-300 AD.

The Castellum was located at the present site of the medieval Petruschurch and surrounding churchyard. During construction work on a new underground parking facility in the city center of Woerden, the remains of numerous old Roman buildings and a Roman cargo ship were found. During field research, a lot became known about the Roman time in Woerden: the location of the castellum, the zone of defense waters with the entrance road and the remains of a Roman cargo ship.

The dark ages
Little is known about the period after the Romans left for good in 402 AD. It may be assumed that people continued to live here, but there is little archaeological evidence. A Frankish sword dated from the 8th century has been found on the site of the Roman Castellum in 2012. The area was contested between Frisians and Franks. Frankish King Dagobert I conquered the area around 630, and a small church was built in nearby Utrecht. Around 650, the Frisians came back, destroyed the Frankish church in Utrecht, and the Frisian king established his court there. Then, in 689 king Redbad was defeated by Frankish Duke Pippin of Herstal in the battle of Dorestad and the Franks regained control of the area. King Redbad reconquered Utrecht after Pippin died in 714, but the Frisian victory was short-lived: Duke Charles Martel defeated Redbad in 718. In 734, Charles Martel went on to vanquish the Frisians, in the Battle of the Boarn.

The missionaries followed in the footsteps of the Frankish conquerors: In 695 AD, Willibrord, known as the "Apostle to the Frisians" became Bishop of Utrecht, with interruptions due to Frisian incursions. Boniface worked here from 719 to 722. Liudger reports that Boniface preached in Wyrda, referring to Wierde, meaning that the place was on higher ground in the area. Around 850, the Bishop had to leave once more, this time because of Viking marauders. Bishop Balderik returned to Utrecht in 918, after the Viking threat subsided. The Bishop claims Woerden as part of his jurisdiction: In a list prepared between 918 and 948 it is mentioned that In UUrdin totum Sancti Martini, meaning: In Woerden everything belongs to Saint Martin, i.e. the church in Utrecht.

Between bishop and count
The Bishop of Utrecht received land grants, first from the Frankish kings, and later from the Kings of Germany, in particular Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1024 AD, the bishops were made Princes of the Holy Roman Empire and the new Prince-bishopric of Utrecht was formed.

Around 1000 AD, settlement was limited to the river banks; further inland were undeveloped bogs. The bishops used their new authority to stimulate reclamation of this wilderness. Concessions were granted to settlers, who drained the bogs by digging dividing ditches beginning from rivers and streams and stretching about ¾ mile inland, thus creating the characteristic grid of fields still seen today. By about 1300 AD, the reclamation process had been completed.

In the meantime, a competing realm had developed to the west, along the coast. First known as West Frisia it became known as Holland when Floris II, Count of Holland moved his court to Leiden in 1101. The Counts of Holland expanded their influence, and by 1165 they built a fort called Svadeburg, near present-day Zwammerdam, about 7 miles to the west of Woerden. Around 1160, Bishop Godfrey van Rhenen built a castle in Woerden. Once more Woerden became a border town between two belligerent powers, a situation that lasted until 1527 when the Bishop of Utrecht sold his territories to Emperor Charles V and the two statelets were united under Charles' rule. Due to its strategic location on the border between the County of Holland and the Bishopric of Utrecht, various wars have been fought in and around Woerden by the various lords and ladies of these realms.

From about 1131 to 1296, the van Woerden family dominated local affairs in Woerden. Several scions of the family are known as Herman van Woerden. Originally they were stewards of the castle for the Bishop, but in time they sought to become independent. In 1274 Herman VI van Woerden formed an alliance with Gijsbrecht IV van Amstel, and revolted against bishop-elect John of Nassau. In 1278, Floris V, Count of Holland, intervened on the side of the much-weakened bishop, and defeated the rebellious lords. Gijsbrecht was taken prisoner, and Herman went into exile. In 1281, Floris V was awarded the lands of the rebellious lords, including Amsterdam and Woerden. In a 1288 peace agreement Floris restored the Lordship of Woerden to Herman van Woerden, but now as a vassal of the count. However, Herman did not prove himself to be a trustworthy vassal: in 1296 the humiliated lords Gijsbrecht IV van Amstel and Herman van Woerden entered the scene again as part of a conspiracy. Together with Gerard van Velzen they captured count Floris during a hunting party and the count was assassinated. In the aftermath, Gerard van Velzen was killed, and Herman van Woerden went again into exile. In 1300, John II, Count of Holland awarded the Lordship of Woerden to his brother Guy of Avesnes, who became Bishop of Utrecht the following year. In 1311, Guy returned the Lordship to his nephew, Count William III, and Woerden remained part of Holland thereafter.

Around 1370 bailiff ordered the construction of defensive walls and a moat to fortify the city, in order to shield Holland from renewed hostilities with Utrecht. Woerden received city rights from Albert I, Duke of Bavaria, and Count of Holland in 1372, even though Woerden was still a small town that harboured no more than about 720 citizens. Around the same time the Petruschurch was built; part of its steeple still stands. In 1410 John III, Duke of Bavaria-Straubing had the castle of Woerden constructed, and in 1510 the city hall was built. These buildings still exist, although the castle was extensively altered and renovated through the years.

On 1 November 1425, Woerden chose the side of Philip the Good in the conflict with Jacoba van Beieren, after Philip confirmed the town privileges and promised that the Lordship of Woerden would never be separated from the County of Holland by awarding it to someone else. During the reign of the Dukes of Burgundy, Philip the Good (1419–1467) and Charles the Bold (1467–1477) Woerden enjoyed an unprecedented period of peace, and by 1477 its population had almost tripled to about 1920. Charles the Bold's death before the gates of Nancy was the prelude to renewed unrest, both with Utrecht and the duchy of Guelders, and the town suffered economic hardship because of it.

Heretics and rebels
Erasmus probably spent his boyhood from age five to nine in Woeden in the household of his father, the local priest from 1471.

The reign of Charles V was a period of relative peace and prosperity for Woerden, despite religious unrest. In April 1522, Charles V introduced the Inquisition in the Low Countries.

Johannes Pistorius Woerdensis (Jan de Bakker), a catholic priest, was the first preacher in the Northern Netherlands to be martyred as a direct result of his religious beliefs. His father was a sexton in Woerden and also tenant of the brickworks, and his surname was derived from that profession.

Jan de Bakker was a pupil of (Johannes Rhodius), headmaster of St. Jerome School of the Brethren of the Common Life in Utrecht. Rode was a proponent of Sacramentarianism, and in 1520 his father called Jan back to Woerden, perhaps out of concern about those heretic views. Jan transferred to Leuven, and in 1522 completed his education there. He returned to Woerden, was ordained in Utrecht as a priest, and assisted his father as sexton and deacon. Jan started to spread the heretic views, and in May 1523 he and another priest were arrested by the steward of the castle. After a short while they were released, and it is thought that the two travelled to Wittenberg, but there is no evidence he met with Martin Luther. After he returned he continued his preachings, and the conflict with the Roman Catholic Church was further aggravated by the fact that he broke his celibacy, and got married. In the night of 9 May 1525, he was arrested and the next day transferred to The Hague, where he appeared before the Inquisition. He was defrocked and sentenced to death, and on 15 September 1525 burned at the stake in The Hague. His widow saved her live by recanting the heresies and lived out her life in an abbey. The city magistrates of Woerden were tolerant towards the Lutheran confession. In 1566 this resulted in a confrontation with duke Eric of Brunswick, who was Lord of Woerden at that time.

Although Eric of Brunswick was raised Lutheran he converted to Catholicism in 1547, much to the regret of his mother Elisabeth of Brandenburg. Eric served as commanding officer in the armies of Charles V and Philip II, and fought on their side in the Schmalkaldic War (1546–1547) and the Franco-Habsburg War (1551–1559). During the Battle of St. Quentin (1557) he distinguished himself by taking French Marshals Anne de Montmorency and Jacques d'Albon de Saint-André prisoner. These prisoners were very important to Philip II as a bargaining chip during negotiations for the peace Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis. In 1558, Philip II granted Duke Eric of Brunswick the Lordship of Woerden as compensation, over the objection of the city magistrates of Woerden who felt that this was an infringement of promises made by Philip the Good in 1425.

In the wake of iconoclastic riots that swept the country in 1566 a prominent citizen of Woerden, Warnaer Claesz, petitioned the city magistrates to introduce the Augsburg Confession. There was also a disruption of the church worship. As a precaution, the city magistrates removed icons and other valuables from the church and stored them in a safe place, and closed the church. The court of Holland concurred with the actions taken by the city magistrates, but Duke Eric of Brunswick objected. He demanded that Catholic worship would be restored. The city magistrates delayed by questioning his authority in this matter. Duke Eric responded by raising a small army and forced the city magistrates to comply.

Duke Eric was also instrumental in suppressing the ill-fated rebellion of Hendrik van Brederode, Lord of Vianen. After the rebel army was defeated in the Battle of Oosterweel (13 March 1567) Eric of Brunswick captured Vianen on May 5, 1567.

In later history, the town saw occupation by the Spanish (1575, 1576) and the French (1672, 1673, and particularly disastrous in 1813).

Modern era

In 1989, there was a local redrawing of province boundaries as a result of which Woerden found itself transferred from South Holland to the province of Utrecht. In 2015, the city's refugee centre formed the scene of a violent attack by 20 hooded people, bearing fireworks and pushing down fences.

Geography
Woerden is located at 52.08333°N, 4.88333°W in the west of the province of Utrecht in the center of the Netherlands.

Woerden is bordered by the municipalities of De Ronde Venen (in the north), Stichtse Vecht (northeast), Utrecht (east), and Montfoort (south) in the province of Utrecht and Bodegraven-Reeuwijk (southwest) and Nieuwkoop (northwest) in the province of South Holland.

The population centers in the municipality are De Meije, Harmelen, Kamerik, Kanis, Woerden, and Zegveld.

Notable people

 * Jan de Bakker (1499–1525), Protestant martyr
 * Herman van Swanevelt (1603–1655), painter and etcher from the Baroque era
 * Leo Gestel (1881-1941), Dutch modernist painter
 * Herman de Man (1898–1946), novelist
 * Jaap Blonk (born 1953), composer and performance artist
 * Gerda Verburg (born 1957) politician and diplomat, lives in Woerden
 * Simone Angel (born 1971), TV host and singer

Sport

 * Arie van Vliet (1916–2001), track cyclist, medallist at the 1936 Summer Olympics
 * Peter Prijdekker (born 1948), freestyle swimmer, competed at the 1972 Summer Olympics
 * Sam Oud (born 1978) slalom canoeist, competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics
 * Esther Vergeer (born 1981), wheelchair tennis player
 * Erwin l'Ami (born 1985) chess grandmaster.
 * Petra Hillenius (1968–2020), breaststroke swimmer, competed at the 1984 Summer Olympics
 * Anouk Hoogendijk (born 1985), international footballer
 * Jiske Griffioen (born 1985) former wheelchair tennis player, three-time Paralympic medalist.
 * Ellen van Dijk (born 1987), professional racing cyclist
 * Floortje Mackaij (born 1995), professional racing cyclist

Buildings in Woerden

 * Water Tower Woerden

Schools in Woerden

 * Kalsbeek College
 * Minkema College
 * Futura College

Transportation

 * Woerden railway station

Rail accidents

 * Woerden train accident (November 1960), an accident with a British furlough train (2 deaths, 10 injured)
 * Harmelen train disaster (January 1962), head-on collision, the worst railway accident in the history of the Netherlands (93 deaths)

title: Woerden


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Woudenberg

Woudenberg is a town and municipality in the central Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. In 2023, it had a population of 14,410.

There are forests in the western part of the municipality in which the Pyramid of Austerlitz is located. The municipality also borders the province of Gelderland to the east.

Etymology
The name Woudenberg refers to a forested hill; nowadays the town lies in an agricultural area about 8 km south of Amersfoort.

Topography

Dutch Topographic map of the municipality of Woudenberg, 2013.

Economy
The main sources of income were the raising of livestock and the cultivation of tobacco. Currently, most people work out of town, mostly in the surrounding towns of Amersfoort, Utrecht and Veenendaal.

Tourism
Because of the many attractions nearby, such as the Grebbe, the Pyramid of Austerlitz and the Henschotermeer, Woudenberg is visited by many tourists. That can also be derived from the number of tourist accommodation, which is 12.

Notable people

 * Arie de Vroet (1918 – 1999 in Woudenberg) footballer
 * Erik Verlinde & Herman Verlinde (born 1962) identical twin brothers and theoretical physicists and string theorist
 * Ricky van Wolfswinkel (born 1989) professional footballer

title: Woudenberg


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Zeist

Zeist is the capital and largest town of the municipality of Zeist. The town is located in the Utrecht province of the Netherlands, east of the city of Utrecht.

History
The town of "Seist" was first mentioned in a charter in the year 838. The original settlement was located at the present Dorpsstraat. In the late 12th century, a church was built here. Its tower is now a part of the Reformed Church, the remainder of which was built in the 19th century. Until medieval times, a branch of the river Rhine flowed close to the centre of the town. Three mansions were built near the village: the Huis te Zeist, Kersbergen, and Blikkenburg.

From 1677 to 1686, the "Slot Zeist" was built on or near the ruins of "Kasteel Zeist", the original castle (donjon) of Rodgar van Zeist. There is very little documentation on the family that lived there, but a few names are found: in the 12th century a Godefridus de Seist and in the late 13th century another Godefridus, a knight, with his son Johannes and his daughter Petronilla. (Bronnen voor de geschiedenis van Zeist, deel 1, ed. Van Hinsbergen) The last member of the van Zeist family was a woman, Elisabeth van Zeist, who married a member of the Borre van Amerongen family. They had a son who adopted his mother's name and his father's coat-of-arms.

In the last quarter of the 17th century, Count Willem Adriaan van Nassau, an illegitimate descendant of Prince Maurice of Orange, acquired the property and built Slot Zeist in the Dutch Classicist style. Murals by Daniel Marot are still largely intact. Members of the Evangelische Broedergemeente (Evangelical Brethren's Congregation), the Dutch name for the Moravians, settled in Zeist in 1746, building for their community an impressive array of 18th century Classicist houses planned around two squares. Their headquarters are still located in the centre of town, next to "the palace". The oldest Dutch archives of the Moravians are kept at the Utrecht Archival Centre at Utrecht.

In the 19th century, Zeist became a favorite residence for the rich, mainly from the city of Utrecht.

Camp New Amsterdam, (vliegbasis Soesterberg) a former Royal Netherlands Air Force military airbase near this town, was the venue for the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial to take place outside the UK, but under Scots law. The court was designated the Scottish Court in the Netherlands.

Organisations and surroundings
Zeist is the location of the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB), the Royal Dutch Korfball Association (KNKV) and the International Korfball Federation(IKF). It is also known for the forests surrounding the town. For many years the Dutch National Archaeological Research Service (Rijksdienst voor het Oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek) was housed at Slot Zeist. Triodos Bank headquarters is also based there.

Notable people
The following notable persons were born in Zeist:
 * Guido Verbeck (1830–1898) political adviser, educator and missionary, worked as a foreign adviser in Japan
 * Hermann Snellen (1834–1908) ophthalmologist, invented the Snellen chart
 * Anthon van Rappard (1858–1892) painter and draughtsman
 * Willem Pijper, (1894–1947) composer, music critic and music teacher
 * Hendrik Marsman, (1899–1940) poet and writer
 * Isaäc Arend Diepenhorst, (1916–2004) former minister of education
 * Johan Witteveen (1921–2019) politician and MD of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) 1973-1978
 * Carel Blotkamp (born 1945) artist, art historian, writer and critic
 * Wam Kat, (born 1956) political activist and author
 * Mark Overmars, (born 1958) author of GameMaker Studio
 * Jan van de Pavert (born 1960) sculptor, painter, draftsman, animator, and video artist
 * Mirjam Sterk (born 1973) former politician, civil servant and educator

Sport

 * Henk Kamerbeek (1893–1954) hammer thrower, competed at the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics
 * André Bolhuis (born 1946) a retired field hockey player, competed at the 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics
 * Bert Blyleven, (born 1951) Major League Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher
 * Guusje van Mourik (born 1955) karateka, judoka and boxer
 * Jos Ruijs (born 1955) rower, competed in the 1976 Summer Olympics
 * Chima Onyeike (born 1975) football coach and former professional player with 257 caps
 * Jeroen Rauwerdink (born 1985) volleyball player
 * Eva de Goede (born 1989) field hockey player, gold medalist in the 2008, 2012 and 2020 Summer Olympics, and silver medallist at the 2016 Summer Olympics

Transport
Zeist has two railway stations. Driebergen-Zeist railway station is located between Zeist and Driebergen-Rijsenburg, to the south of Zeist. It is on the Amsterdam–Arnhem railway. Den Dolder railway station is located in Den Dolder. It is on the Utrecht–Kampen railway and the Den Dolder–Baarn railway. Zeist also has two major bus hubs, one on the Jordanlaan and one at Handelscentrum. They have 6 and 4 lines going through respectively.

title: Zeist


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CSV

CSV may refer to:

Computing

 * Certified Server Validation, a spam fighting technique
 * Cluster Shared Volumes, a Microsoft Windows Server 2008 technology
 * Comma-separated values, a file format and extension
 * Computerized system validation, a documentation process

Organizations

 * CSV Apeldoorn, a Netherlands football club
 * Christian Social People's Party, a political party in Luxembourg
 * Clerics of Saint Viator, a Roman Catholic institute
 * Community Service Volunteers, a British charity
 * Confederación Sudamericana de Voleibol (South American Volleyball Confederation)
 * Conseil scolaire Viamonde, a public school board in Ontario, Canada

Transportation

 * Chevrolet Special Vehicles, Holden racing car
 * Corsa Specialised Vehicles, an Australia car-maker
 * GM U platform, General Motors cross-over sport vans

Other

 * C. S. Venkataraman, a mathematician from Kerala, India
 * ČSV, a Sámi initialism
 * Character Strengths and Virtues, 2004 book
 * Creating shared value, a business concept

title: CSV


text:
Talk:Zeist

ATTN: Would you please register as a wikipedia user before listing any more articles? It's free, and it's important if you're going to post this many things that you register so that people can communicate with you on your talk page about any questions or comments they have. Thanks -EB-

 * Hi EB, while you yourself are not registered (or at least not while posting this), I'm registered under Jheijmans. The posts of 131.155.etc are made automatically, since I have a bunch of data on the Dutch municipalities, and I 'm having articles generated from this data. So if you wish to communicate, you can go to: Jeronimo

title: Talk:Zeist


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Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), Pub. L. 101-601, 25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq., 104 Stat. 3048, is a United States federal law enacted on November 16, 1990.

The Act requires federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American "cultural items" to lineal descendants and culturally affiliated American Indian tribes, Alaska Native villages, and Native Hawaiian organizations. Cultural items include human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony. A program of federal grants assists in the repatriation process and the Secretary of the Interior may assess civil penalties on museums that fail to comply.

NAGPRA also establishes procedures for the inadvertent discovery or planned excavation of Native American cultural items on federal or tribal lands. While these provisions do not apply to discoveries or excavations on private or state lands, the collection provisions of the Act may apply to Native American cultural items if they come under the control of an institution that receives federal funding.

NAGPRA makes it a criminal offense to traffic in Native American human remains without right of possession or in Native American cultural items obtained in violation of the Act. Penalties for a first offense may reach 12 months imprisonment and a $100,000 fine.

The Department of the Interior amended NAGPRA in 2023 to clarify steps for its implementation. The amendment, which went into effect on January 12, 2024, states "...museums and Federal agencies must defer to the Native American traditional knowledge of lineal descendants, Indian Tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations."

Background
The intent of the NAGPRA legislation is to address long-standing claims by federally recognized tribes for the return of human remains and cultural objects unlawfully obtained from pre-contact, post-contact, former, and current Native American homelands. Interpretation of human and Indigenous rights, prehistoric presence, cultural affiliation with antiquities, and the return of remains and objects can be controversial and contested. It includes provisions that delineate the legal processes by which museums and federal agencies are required to return certain Native American cultural items—human remains, gravesite materials, and other objects of cultural patrimony—to proven lineal descendants, culturally-related Native American tribes, and Native Hawaiian groups.

Outcomes of NAGPRA repatriation efforts are slow and cumbersome, leading many tribes to spend considerable effort documenting their requests; collections' holders are obliged to inform and engage with tribes whose materials they may possess. NAGPRA was enacted primarily at the insistence and by the direction of members of Native American nations.

Tribal concerns
Tribes had many reasons based in law that made legislation concerning tribal grave protection and repatriation necessary.
 * State Statutory Law: Historically, states only regulated and protected marked graves. Native American graves were often unmarked and did not receive the protection provided by these statutes.
 * Common Law: The colonizing population formed much of the legal system that developed over the course of settling the United States. This law did not often take into account the unique Native American practices concerning graves and other burial practices. It did not account for government actions against Native Americans, such as removal, the relationship that Native Americans as different peoples maintain with their dead, and sacred ideas and myths related to the possession of graves.
 * Equal Protection: Native Americans, as well as others, often found that the remains of Native American graves were treated differently from the dead of other races.
 * First Amendment: As in most racial and social groups, Native American burial practices relate strongly to their religious beliefs and practices. They held that when tribal dead were desecrated, disturbed, or withheld from burial, their religious beliefs and practices are being infringed upon. Religious beliefs and practices are protected by the First Amendment.
 * Sovereignty Rights: Native Americans hold unique rights as sovereign bodies, leading to their relations to be controlled by their own laws and customs. The relationship between the people and their dead is an internal relationship, to be understood as under the sovereign jurisdiction of the tribe.
 * Treaty: From the beginning of the U.S. government and tribe relations, the tribe maintained rights unless specifically divested to the U.S. government in a treaty. The U.S. government does not have the right to disturb Native American graves or their dead, because it has not been granted by any treaty.

Description
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act is a law that establishes the ownership of cultural items excavated or discovered on federal or tribal land after November 16, 1990. The act also applies to land transferred by the federal government to the states under the Water Resources Department Act. However, the provisions of the legislation do not apply to private lands. The Act states that Native American remains and associated funerary objects belong to lineal descendants. If lineal descendants cannot be identified, then those remains and objects, along with associated funerary and sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony belong to the tribe on whose lands the remains were found or the tribe having the closest known relationship to them. Tribes find the burden of proof is on them, if it becomes necessary to demonstrate a cultural relationship that may not be well-documented or understood. Nowhere has this issue been more pronounced than in California, where many small bands were extinguished before they could be recognized, and only a handful have obtained federal recognition as Native Americans and descendants of Native American bands.

Congress attempted to "strike a balance between the interest in scientific examination of skeletal remains and the recognition that Native Americans, like people from every culture around the world, have a religious and spiritual reverence for the remains of their ancestors."

The act also requires each federal agency, museum, or institution that receives federal funds to prepare an inventory of remains and funerary objects and a summary of sacred objects, cultural patrimony objects, and unassociated funerary objects. The act provides for repatriation of these items when requested by the appropriate descendant of the tribe. This applies to remains or objects discovered at any time, even before November 16, 1990.

Since the legislation passed, the human remains of approximately 32,000 individuals have been returned to their respective tribes. Nearly 670,000 funerary objects, 120,000 unassociated funerary objects, and 3,500 sacred objects have been returned.

The statute attempts to mediate a significant tension that exists between the tribes' communal interests in the respectful treatment of their deceased ancestors and related cultural items and the scientists' individual interests in the study of those same human remains and items. The act divides the treatment of American Indian human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony into two basic categories. Under the inadvertent discovery and planned excavation component of the act and regulations, if federal officials anticipate that activities on federal and tribal lands after November 16, 1990 might have an effect on American Indian burials—or if burials are discovered during such activities—they must consult with potential lineal descendants or American Indian tribal officials as part of their compliance responsibilities. For planned excavations, consultation must occur during the planning phase of the project. For inadvertent discoveries, the regulations delineate a set of short deadlines for initiating and completing consultation. The repatriation provision, unlike the ownership provision, applies to remains or objects discovered at any time, even before the effective date of the act, whether or not discovered on tribal or federal land. The act allows archaeological teams a short time for analysis before the remains must be returned. Once it is determined that human remains are American Indian, analysis can occur only through documented consultation (on federal lands) or consent (on tribal lands).

A criminal provision of the Act prohibits trafficking in Native American human remains, or in Native American "cultural items." Under the inventory and notification provision of the act, federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funds are required to summarize their collections that may contain items subject to NAGPRA. Additionally, federal agencies and institutions must prepare inventories of human remains and funerary objects. Under the act, funerary objects are considered "associated" if they were buried as part of a burial ceremony with a set of human remains still in possession of the federal agency or other institution. "Unassociated" funerary objects are artifacts where human remains were not initially collected by—or were subsequently destroyed, lost, or no longer in possession of—the agency or institution. Consequently, this legislation also applies to many Native American artifacts, especially burial items and religious artifacts. It has necessitated mass cataloguing of the Native American collections in order to identify the living heirs, culturally affiliated Indian tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations of remains and artifacts. NAGPRA has had a dramatic effect on the day-to-day practice of archaeology and physical anthropology in the United States. In many cases, NAGPRA helped stimulate interactions of archaeologists and museum professionals with Native Americans that were felt to be constructive by all parties.

Cultural exploitation
The late 19th century was one of the most difficult periods in Native American history regarding the loss of cultural artifacts and land. With the founding of museums and scholarly studies of Native American peoples increasing with the growth of anthropology and archeology as disciplines, private collectors and museums competed to acquire artifacts, which many Native Americans considered ancestral assets, but others sold. This competition existed not only between museums such as the Smithsonian Institution (founded in 1846) and museums associated with universities, but also between museums in the United States and museums in Europe. In the 1880s and 1890s, collecting was done by untrained adventurers. As of the year 1990, federal agencies reported having the remains of 14,500 deceased Natives in their possession, which had accumulated since the late 19th century. Many institutions said they used the remains of Native Americans for anthropological research, to gain more information about humans. At one time, in since discredited comparative racial studies, institutions such as the Army Medical Museum sought to demonstrate racial characteristics to prove the inferiority of Native Americans.

Residential and commercial developments
Residential and commercial development was a driving force in the desecration of many Native American burial sites, particularly in the 20th century with the expansion of suburbs and urban sprawl. For example, in Wana the Bear v. Community Construction (1982), two-hundred Miwok ancestral remains were bulldozed in the development of a residential area in Stockton, California. A descendant of the people, Wana the Bear, attempted to prevent further desecration by arguing that the site should continue to be protected as a cemetery. The California Courts of Appeal sided with the construction company, which finished in its destruction of the burial grounds for residential development.

Maria Pearson
Maria Pearson is often credited with being the earliest catalyst for the passage of NAGPRA legislation; she has been called "the Founding Mother of modern Indian repatriation movement" and the "Rosa Parks of NAGPRA". In the early 1970s, Pearson was appalled that the skeletal remains of Native Americans were treated differently from white remains. Her husband, an engineer with the Iowa Department of Transportation, told her that both Native American and white remains were uncovered during road construction in Glenwood, Iowa. While the remains of 26 white burials were quickly reburied, the remains of a Native American mother and child were sent to a lab for study instead. Pearson protested to Governor Robert D. Ray, finally gaining an audience with him after sitting outside his office in traditional attire. "You can give me back my people's bones and you can quit digging them up", she responded when the governor asked what he could do for her. The ensuing controversy led to the passage of the Iowa Burials Protection Act of 1976, the first legislative act in the United States that specifically protected Native American remains.

Emboldened by her success, Pearson went on to lobby national leaders, and her efforts, combined with the work of many other activists, led to the creation of NAGPRA. Pearson and other activists were featured in the 1995 BBC documentary Bones of Contention.

Slack Farm and Dickson Mounds
The 1987 looting of a 500-year-old burial mound at the Slack Farm in Kentucky, in which human remains were tossed to the side while relics were stolen, made national news and helped to galvanize popular support for protection of Native American graves. Likewise, several protests at the Dickson Mounds site in Illinois, where numerous Indian skeletons were exposed on display, also increased national awareness of the issue.

Challenges
A number of archeologists are concerned that they are being prevented from studying ancient remains which cannot be traced to any historic tribe. Many of the tribes migrated to their territories at the time of European encounter within 100–500 years from other locations, so their ancestors were not located in the historic territories. The issue has repeatedly stalled archaeological investigations, such as in the case of the Spirit Cave mummy; fears have been voiced that an anti-scientific sentiment could well have permeated politics to an extent that scientists might find their work to be continuously barred by Native Americans rights activists.

Kennewick Man
Compliance with the legislation can be complicated such as the Kennewick Man, a skeleton found on July 28, 1996 near Kennewick, Washington. The almost complete skeleton was close to 9,000 years old. Ancient remains from North America are rare, making it a valuable scientific discovery. The federally recognized Umatilla, Colville, Yakima, and Nez Perce tribes had each claimed Kennewick Man as their ancestor, and sought permission to rebury him. Kennewick, Washington is classified as part of the ancestral land of the Umatilla.

Archaeologists said that because of Kennewick Man's great age, there was insufficient evidence to connect him to modern tribes. The great age of the remains makes this discovery scientifically valuable. As archaeologists, forensic specialists, and linguists differed about whether the adult male was of Indigenous origin, the standing law, if conclusively found by a preponderance of evidence to be Native American, would give the tribe of the geographic area where he was found a claim to the remains. Anthropologists wanted to preserve and study the remains, however, steps had already been taken to repatriate the Kennewick Man given that he was discovered on federal lands. A lawsuit was filed by Douglas Owsley and Robson Bonnichsen, along with other notable anthropologists, in the hopes of preventing the repatriation of the skeleton. In 2004, the court sided with the plaintiffs' assertion that due to the skeleton's age, there was not enough information available at the time to conclude whether the Kennewick Man had any cultural or genetic ties to any present day Native American tribes, and granted the plaintiffs' request to further study the remains. New evidence could still emerge in defense of tribal claims to ancestry, but emergent evidence may require more sophisticated and precise methods of determining genetic descent, given that there was no cultural evidence accompanying the remains.

One tribe claiming ancestry to Kennewick Man offered up a DNA test, and in 2015 it was found that the Kennewick man is "more closely related to modern Native Americans than any other living population." In September 2016, the U.S. House and Senate passed legislation to return the ancient bones to a coalition of Columbia Basin tribes for reburial according to their traditions. The coalition includes the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Nez Perce Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation, and the Wanapum Band of Priest Rapids. The remains were buried on February 18, 2017, with 200 members of five Columbia Basin tribes, at an undisclosed location in the area.

Return to the Earth project
Return to the Earth is an inter-religious project whose goal is to inter unidentified remains in regional burial sites. Over 110,000 remains that cannot be associated with a particular tribe are held in institutions across the United States, as of 2006. The project seeks to enable a process of reconciliation between Native and non-Native peoples, construct cedar burial boxes, produce burial cloths and fund the repatriation of remains. The first of the burial sites is near the Cheyenne Cultural Center in Clinton, Oklahoma.

Institutions with remains
Institutions with non-repatriated remains:

 * The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, which has more than 5000 human remains; some of these may belong to the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
 * American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, New York is estimated to hold more than 1900 remains.
 * The Field Museum in Chicago is estimated to hold more than 1000 remains.
 * The Ohio History Connection (previously the Ohio Historical Society) is estimated to hold more than 7100 remains.
 * Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is estimated to hold more than 6100 remains.
 * Illinois State Museum is estimated to hold more than 7500 remains.
 * Indiana University is estimated to hold more than 4800 remains.
 * The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley is estimated to hold more than 9000 remains.
 * The University of Kansas holds at least 271 individuals’ remains and 539 funerary objects with almost half the remains being from Wyandotte County.
 * The University of North Dakota discovered dozens of remains in collections on campus in March 2022.
 * California State University System holds 5804 human remains and an additional 692,500 potential cultural items such as artifacts, animal bone, and samples on 21 of its 23 campuses.
 * The South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology has 252 ancestral remains and 9748 known funerary objects.
 * The Charleston Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, has 80 remains after repatriating two.

Related State Laws
Cal NAGPRA (Assembly Bill (978) is an act created by the state of California which was signed into law in 2001. The act was created to implement the same repatriation expectations for state-funded institutions, museums, repositories, or collections as those federally supported through NAGPRA. Cal NAGPRA also supports non-federally recognized tribes within California that were exempt from legal rights to repatriation under the federal NAGPRA act.

International policies

The issues of such resources are being addressed by international groups dealing with Indigenous rights. For example, in 1995 the United States signed an agreement with El Salvador in order to protect all pre‑Columbian artifacts from leaving the region. Soon after, it signed similar agreements with Canada, Peru, Guatemala, and Mali and demonstrated leadership in implementing the 1970 UNESCO Convention. The UNESCO convention membership increased to 86 countries by 1997, and 193 by 2007. UNESCO appears to be reducing the illicit antiquities trade. Although difficult to track, the scholar Phyllis Messenger notes that some antiquities traders have written articles denouncing the agreements, which suggests that it is reducing items sold to them.

An international predecessor of the UNESCO Convention and NAGPRA is the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. The Hague Convention was the first international convention to focus on preserving cultural heritage from the devastation of war. Looting and destruction of other civilizations have been characteristics of war recorded from the first accounts of all cultures.

On September 30, 1897, Lieutenant Robert Peary brought six Inuit from Greenland to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, at the request of the anthropologist Franz Boas, in order to "obtain leisurely certain information which will be of the greatest scientific importance" regarding Inuit culture. About two weeks after arrival at the museum, all six of the Inuit became sick with colds and fever. They began to perform their tribal healing process and were mocked for their bizarre behavior. Viewing these people became a form of entertainment for the Americans. By November 1, 1897, they were admitted to the Bellevue Hospital Center with tuberculosis, which they likely had contracted before their trip. In February, the first Inuit died, followed shortly after by two more. By the time the sickness had run its course, only two men survived. Minik was adopted by a superintendent of the museum, while Uissakassak returned to his homeland in Greenland. Later, after being lied to and being told that his father Qisuk had received a proper Inuit burial, Minik was shocked to find his father's skeleton on display in the museum.

In 1993 the museum agreed to return the four Inuit skeletons to Greenland for proper burial. Representatives of the Museum went to Greenland that year to participate. In contrast to peoples in other areas, some local Inuit thought that the burial was more desired by the Christian representatives of the museum, and that the remains could have just as appropriately been kept in New York. David Hurst Thomas' study of the case shows the complexity of reburial and repatriation cases, and the need for individual approaches to each case by all affected parties.

Protecting cultural property
In the United States, the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) protects archaeological sites on federally owned lands. Privately owned sites are controlled by the owners. In some areas, archaeological foundations or similar organizations buy archaeological sites in order to conserve cultural resources associated with such properties.

Other countries may use three basic types of laws to protect cultural remains:

 * Selective export control laws control the trade of the most important artifacts while still allowing some free trade. Countries that use these laws include Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
 * Total export restriction laws are used by some countries to enact an embargo and completely shut off export of cultural property. Many Latin American and Mediterranean countries use these laws.
 * Other countries, such as Mexico, use national ownership laws to declare national ownership for all cultural artifacts. These laws cover control of artifacts that have not been discovered, to try to prevent looting of potential sites before exploration.


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Connie Sue Highway

The Connie Sue Highway is an outback unsealed track that runs between the Aboriginal community of Warburton on the Great Central Road and Rawlinna on the Trans-Australian Railway. It lies entirely in the state of Western Australia, crosses the Great Victoria Desert and Nullarbor Plain, and is approximately 650 km long.

History
The Warburton-Rawlinna road was pioneered as part of a network of roads for the Weapons Research Establishment at Woomera, South Australia. Surveying began in July 1962, when Len Beadell, with wife Anne and baby Connie Sue, left Adelaide and travelled via the Stuart Highway and the Gunbarrel Highway to Warburton. From there they roughly 300 km south in his Land Rover, until reaching the approximate latitude of the Anne Beadell Highway, which was under construction from the east. Turning east, they drove another 150 km through the Great Victoria desert to a point west of Serpentine Lakes to join up with his Gunbarrel Road Construction Party (GRCP). They ran out of fuel and water about 10 km short of their destination, but with the aid of radio and flares, were joined by their team.

Beadell and family then began a reconnaissance west towards Neale Junction, followed by the GRCP. After two weeks of intense activity during August, the Anne Beadell Highway reached Neale Junction. From there, Beadell and party then commenced building a new road north towards Warburton. Just north of Neale Junction, Beadell's infant daughter Connie Sue was observed standing up for the first time in her tea-chest bassinet. It was decided there and then that the Warburton-Rawlinna road would be known as the Connie Sue Highway. The 320 kilometre section of new road reached Warburton on 15 September. After obtaining supplies, the construction team turned south and by early October were back at Neale Junction. Beadell then began surveying south towards Rawlinna to make the southern half of the new Connie Sue Highway. The GRCP with bulldozer and grader followed Beadell's tracks, constructing the road as they went. By the end of October the road was completed, and the Beadell family returned to Adelaide via the Eyre Highway.

Additional details
Approximately halfway along the route is Neale Junction, 172 km west of Ilkurlka, where the highway intersects with another outback road, the Anne Beadell Highway.

The road, like many Len Beadell built, is a "highway" in name only. It is remote and does not carry regular traffic. There is no available ground water and it is one of the longest stretches in Australia between fuel pumps. The only place on the highway that sells fuel is Warburton. There is no fuel for sale at Rawlinna. The closest available is more than 100 km to the south, at Caiguna or Cocklebiddy, on the Eyre Highway.

The track is not considered suitable for unprepared travellers. A free permit is required to travel on track in the Ngaanyatjarrak determination area and to enter Warburton. Obtaining a permit for the track requires a minimum of five working days turnaround.

title: Connie Sue Highway


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CONELRAD

CONELRAD (Control of Electromagnetic Radiation) was a method of emergency broadcasting to the public of the United States in the event of enemy attack during the Cold War. It was intended to allow continuous broadcast of civil defense information to the public using radio stations, while rapidly switching the transmitter stations to make the broadcasts unsuitable for Soviet bombers that might attempt to home in on the signals (as was done during World War II, when German radio stations, based in or near cities, were used as beacons by bomber pilots).

U.S. President Harry S. Truman established CONELRAD in 1951. After the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles reduced the likelihood of a bomber attack, and the development of superior navigation systems that did not rely on radio direction finding for use in those bomber aircraft which were sent against the United States, CONELRAD was replaced by the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) on August 5, 1963, which was later replaced by the Emergency Alert System (EAS) on January 1, 1997; all have been administered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Unlike the EBS and EAS, CONELRAD was never intended for use in local civil emergencies such as severe weather. However, the system's alerting protocol could be used for alerting of a natural disaster by 1957.

History

Before 1951, there was no systematic way for the U.S. government to communicate with citizens during an emergency. However, broadcasters would typically interrupt normal programming to issue emergency bulletins, as happened during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and the first successful tornado warning in 1948. Such bulletins were the forerunner to CONELRAD.

The CONELRAD concept was originally known as the Key Station System. According to an FCC document created during the "Informal Government–Industry Technical Conference" on March 26, 1951:

"The primary plan for alerting broadcast stations that are currently being considered by the FCC Study Group is known as the Key Station System. The arrangement requires certain telephone circuits (private wire or direct line to Toll Board) between the Air Defense Control Centers (A.D.C.C.) and specified radio stations to be known as "Basic Key Stations."

Additional telephone circuits (direct line to Toll Board) will be required in certain cases, between "Basic Key Stations" and other stations to be known as "Relay Key Stations". Each "Basic Key Station" receiving an alert or warning signal from the A.D.C.C. shall, if so directed, proceed to broadcast a predetermined message and also relay the message by telephone to all "Relay Key Stations" under his control as specified." CONELRAD was officially introduced on December 10, 1951."

CONELRAD had a simple system for alerting the public and other "downstream" stations, consisting of a sequence of shutting the station off for five seconds, returning to the air for five seconds, again shutting down for five seconds, returning to the air again (for 5 seconds), and then transmitting a 1 kHz tone for 15 seconds. Key stations would be alerted directly. All other broadcast stations would monitor a designated station in their area.

In the event of an emergency, all United States television and FM radio stations were required to stop broadcasting. Upon alert, most AM medium-wave stations shut down. The stations that stayed on the air would transmit on either 640 or 1240 kHz. They would transmit for several minutes and then go off the air, and another station would take over on the same frequency in a "round robin" chain. This was to confuse enemy aircraft who might be navigating using radio direction finding. By law, radio sets manufactured between 1953 and 1963 had these two frequencies marked by the triangle-in-circle ("CD Mark") symbol of Civil Defense.

Although the system by which the CONELRAD process was initiated (switching the transmitter on and off) was simple, it was prone to numerous false alarms, especially during lightning storms. Transmitters could be damaged by the quick cycling. The switching later became known informally as the "EBS Stress Test" (due to many transmitters failing during tests) and was eventually discontinued when broadcast technology advanced enough to make it unnecessary.

Beginning January 2, 1957, U.S. amateur radio came under CONELRAD rules and amateur stations were also required to stop transmitting if commercial radio stations went off the air due to an alert. Several companies marketed special receivers that monitored local broadcast stations, sounding an alarm and automatically deactivating the amateur's transmitter when the broadcast station went off the air.

In a Time magazine article featured in the November 14, 1960, issue, the author details why the warning system consisting of localized civil defense sirens and the CONELRAD radio-alert system was "basically unsound". The author's alternative was to advocate for the National Emergency Alarm Repeater as a supplement, which did not need a radio or television to be switched on to warn citizens, nor a large CD siren to be in their vicinity.

False alarms
On May 5, 1955, the Continental Air Defense Command Western Division went to yellow alert for 3 to 10 minutes (depending on the alerted state), beginning at 10:40 AM PDT. The alert was raised by a Canadian radar emplacement which was unaware of an outbound United States B-47 bomber training exercise, due to communication failures. A yellow alert meant "attack expectable", and the word was sent to government and civil defense organizations. In the seven-minute window, the city of Oakland, the Sacramento Capitol Building, and others quickly sounded their alert sirens. In contrast, the City of Sacramento civil defense director waited for further confirmation before sounding the citywide siren; ultimately, he never did so. The alert was not acted on at all in Colorado due to the short length, and in Nevada, there was no alert because the person responsible for acting on it "did not know what to do with it". In Utah, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Texas, and Louisiana, a yellow alert was not passed along to civil authorities at all, and those states issued a "white" (military emergency) alert to units in their state instead. Even with the short alert window, many radio and television stations went off the air in accord with CONELRAD procedure, but the alert was not long enough for stations to start broadcasting on the two authorized CONELRAD frequencies.

On the evening of November 5, 1959, WJPG, the CONELRAD control station for northeast Wisconsin and Upper Michigan was incorrectly sent an alert status message, "This is an air defense radio alert", rather than what should have been sent for a test, "This is an air defense line check." All three of Green Bay, Wisconsin's television stations (WFRV-TV, WLUK-TV, and WBAY-TV), as well as Green Bay radio stations WBAY and WJPG (and other Upper Michigan radio stations) were immediately taken off line as preparations were made for high priority stations to begin broadcasting on the two authorized CONELRAD AM frequencies (which in that area would force WOMT, a station in nearby Manitowoc at 1240 AM, off the air). The transmission error was realized and CONELRAD alert preparation (and its media blackout) reversed for affected stations about 20 minutes later.

A very similar false attack alarm was sent to radio and television stations through CONELRAD's replacement, the Emergency Broadcast System, at 9:33 AM EST on Saturday, February 20, 1971. This message was sent by accident instead of the usual weekly EAN test.

title: CONELRAD


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Talk:7Up

I don't believe 7-up is decaffeinated. This would mean that the ingredients contain caffeine that is actively removed from the final product. I think 7-Up is simply caffeine free. -- Chris Q 14:50 Oct 21, 2002 (UTC)

title: Talk:7Up


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Herostratus

Herostratus (Ἡρόστρατος) was a 4th-century BC Greek, accused of seeking notoriety as an arsonist by destroying the second Temple of Artemis in Ephesus (on the outskirts of present-day Selçuk), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The act prompted his execution and the creation of a damnatio memoriae law forbidding anyone to mention his name, orally or in writing. The law was ultimately ineffective, as evidenced by surviving accounts of his crime. Thus, Herostratus has become an eponym for someone who commits a criminal act in order to become famous.

History

Archeological evidence indicates the site of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus had been of sacred use since the Bronze Age, and the original building was destroyed during a flood in the 7th century BC. A second temple was commissioned by King Croesus of Lydia around 560 BC and built by Cretan architects including Chersiphron, constructed largely of marble, and measuring 337 feet long and 180 feet wide with its pillars standing 40 feet tall. The sculpted bases of the pillars contained life-sized carvings and the roof opened to the sky around a statue of Artemis. The second temple was included on an early list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Herodotus in the 5th century BC, and was well known in ancient times.

Little is known about the life of Herostratus, though it is thought he may have been someone of low social standing, a non-Ephesian or a slave. According to tradition, the fire that destroyed the second temple was set on the day Alexander the Great was born, 21 July 356 BC. Herostratus was then captured and tortured on the rack, where he confessed to having committed the arson in an attempt to immortalize his name. To dissuade those of similar intentions, the Ephesian authorities not only executed Herostratus, but attempted to condemn him to a legacy of obscurity by forbidding mention of his name under penalty of death. However, the ancient historian Theopompus, who was not Ephesian but rather Chian, mentions the name of Herostratus in his Philippica, and it appears again later in the works of Strabo. It is said that in fact his name has outlived the names of his judges, and in his 1658 work Hydriotaphia Sir Thomas Browne states: "But the iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy, and deals with the memory of men without distinction to merit of perpetuity. [...] Herostratus lives that burnt the Temple of Diana, he is almost lost that built it [...] Who knows whether the best of men be known? or whether there be not more remarkable persons forgot, than any that stand remembred in the known account of time?"

Work on a third temple at the site began in 323 BC, resulting in a larger and more ornate temple that would be included by Antipater of Sidon as one of Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Legacy
Herostratus' name lived on in classical literature and has passed into modern languages as a term for someone who commits a criminal act in order to achieve notoriety. According to Julia H. Fawcett, Herostratus "exemplifies a figure asserting his right to self-definition, one who strikes out against a history to which he is unknown by performing himself back into that history—through whatever means necessary." The term "Herostratic fame" refers to Herostratus and means "fame [sought] at any cost".

In literature and the arts

 * Chaucer makes reference to Herostratus in The House of Fame: "I am that ylke shrewe, ywis, / That brende the temple of Ysidis / In Athenes, loo, that citee." / "And wherfor didest thou so?" quod she. / "By my thrift," quod he, "madame, / I wolde fayn han had a fame, / As other folk hadde in the toun..."
 * Many authors from 16th- and 17th-century Spain refer to Herostratus to represent someone who will do anything to gain notoriety. He is discussed in Chapter 8 of the second part of Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote (1615), along with Julius Caesar and Hernán Cortés. Don García, the protagonist of Ruiz de Alarcón's La verdad sospechosa (Suspect Truth), compares his feats to the ancient character.
 * Colley Cibber's Richard III (1699) contains the oft-quoted line, "The aspiring youth that fired the Ephesian dome / Outlives in fame the pious fool that rais'd it."
 * In the chapter titled "Dreams" in Herman Melville's Mardi, and a Voyage Thither (1849), the protagonist states, "[W]hoso stones me, shall be as Erostratus, who put torch to the temple..."
 * Jaroslav Hašek, in the preface of his last novel The Good Soldier Švejk (1921–1923), compared Herostratus to the protagonist Švejk in praise of the latter.
 * In his 6 October 1939 speech to the Berlin Reichstag, Adolf Hitler made a reference to Herostratus, making a contemporary comparison: "It is clear to me that there is a certain Jewish international capitalism and journalism that has no feeling at all in common with the people whose interests they pretend to represent, but who, like Herostratus of old, regard incendiarism as the greatest success of their lives."
 * The protagonist of the 1967 film Herostratus hires a marketing company to turn his suicide-by-jumping into a mass-media spectacle.
 * In Gore Vidal's 1970 novel Two Sisters, the real-life story of Herostratus serves as a sub-plot.
 * In Grigori Gorin's 1972 play Forget Herostratus!, a "theater man" from the present observes the judgement of Herostratus in order to understand the source of the disaster that plagues humanity.
 * Jean-Paul Sartre's short story "Erostratus" (1939) is directly based on the story of Herostratus.
 * Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 film Stalker makes reference to Herostratus.
 * The tale of Herostratus is directly referenced in two songs from the If These Trees Could Talk album Above the Earth, Below the Sky (2009).
 * In Sam Levinson's 2018 film Assassination Nation, a hacker under the handle "Er0str4tus" leaks half of the town of Salem's personal information "for the lulz", sending the town into a frenzy of violence.

title: Herostratus


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Aalburg

Aalburg is a former municipality in the southern Netherlands, in the province of North Brabant. The municipality had been formed in 1973 by the merging of the former municipalities of Eethen, Veen, and Wijk en Aalburg. On January 1, 2019 it joined Werkendam and Woudrichem in the new municipality of Altena.

Population centres

 * Babyloniënbroek
 * Drongelen
 * Eethen
 * Genderen
 * Meeuwen
 * Veen
 * Wijk en Aalburg (town hall)

Cycling
Aalburg hosted the annual 7-Dorpenomloop Aalburg, an elite women's road bicycle race since 2007.

title: Aalburg


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Alphen-Chaam

Alphen-Chaam is a municipality in the southern Netherlands.

Population centres
Towns:
 * Alphen (4,000)
 * Chaam (3,810)
 * Galder (1,190)

Hamlets (the population data of these hamlets is included in the population data of the towns near which they are located): • Alphen-Boshoven

• Alphen-Oosterwijk

• Boslust

• Cauwelaar

• Chaamdijk

• Druisdijk

• Geersbroek

• Ginderdoor

• Grazen

• Heerstaaien

• Heikant

• Het Sas

• Hondseind

• Houtgoor

• Kalishoek

• Klooster

• Kwaalburg

• Leg

• Looneind

• Meijsberg

• Notsel

• Rakens

• Snijders-Chaam

• Strijbeek

• Terover

• Ulvenhout AC

• Venweg

• 't Zand

Topography

Topographic map of the municipality of Alphen-Chaam, Sept. 2014.

Notable people

 * Ruud de Moor (born 1928 in Chaam – 2001) a Dutch professor of sociology
 * Piet A. Verheyen (born 1931 in Alphen) a Dutch economist and academic
 * Natasha den Ouden (born 1973 in Galder) a Dutch cyclist
 * Jelle Klaasen (born 1984 in Alphen) a Dutch professional darts player, the youngest winner of the World Darts Championship at age 21

title: Alphen-Chaam


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Asten, Netherlands

Asten is a municipality and a town in southern Netherlands.

It is home to the Royal Eijsbouts bell foundry and also a carillon museum.

The spoken language is Peellands, an East Brabantian dialect.

Population centres

 * Asten
 * Heusden
 * Ommel

History
Asten has a rich history going back to the Roman period. In the swamp of the village's national park 'De Peel' an ancient Roman centurion helmet was found. Silhouets of Hunter-Gatherer and Agricultural societies were also found in the area. The village has a castle dating back to the 12th century, at the south of the current village. It has also given its name to the village: "Aa-Stein", or "stone building on the river Aa". A second stone-built fortified building was suspected at the north, at the site of the current Slotweg ("castle road") to be precise. Some stone fragments have been excavated, although no conclusive evidence of a fortified building has been produced here. The village was pillaged and burnt twice in the 17th century, by Austrian and Swedish army troops.

Notable residents

 * Driekske van Bussel (1868 in Asten – 1951) an archer, gold medallist at the 1920 Summer Olympics
 * Piet Raijmakers (born 1956 in Asten) a Dutch equestrian, gold medallist at the 1992 Summer Olympics
 * Jan Verschuren (born 1962 in Asten) a Dutch organist
 * Martin Koolhoven (born 1969) a Dutch film director and screenwriter
 * Nancy Coolen (born 1973 in Asten) known as Nance, is a Dutch TV host and former singer for Twenty 4 Seven
 * Bart Claessen (born 1980 in Asten) a Dutch Trance music DJ

title: Asten, Netherlands


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Baarle-Nassau

Baarle-Nassau is a municipality and town in the southern Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. It had a population of 0 in. The town is the site of a complicated borderline between Belgium and the Netherlands: it encloses 22 small exclaves of the Belgian town Baarle-Hertog, of which the two largest contain seven counter-enclaves of Baarle-Nassau, and the main body of Belgium contains another.

The border with Baarle-Hertog, Belgium
Baarle-Nassau is closely linked, with complicated borders, to the Belgian exclaves of Baarle-Hertog. Baarle-Hertog consists of 26 separate parcels of land. Apart from the main parcel, known as Zondereigen and located north of the Belgian town of Merksplas, there are 22 Belgian exclaves in the Netherlands and three other parcels on the Dutch-Belgian border. There are also six Dutch exclaves located within the largest Belgian exclave, one within the second-largest, and an eighth within Zondereigen. The smallest Belgian parcel, H7, locally named De Loversche Akkers, measures 2,469 m2.

The border's complexity results from numerous medieval treaties, agreements, land-swaps and sales between the Lords of Breda and the Dukes of Brabant. Generally speaking, predominantly agricultural or built environments became constituents of Brabant, while other parts devolved to Breda. These distributions were ratified and clarified as a part of the borderline settlements arrived at during the Treaty of Maastricht in 1843.

For clarification and the interest of tourists, the border is made visible on all streets with iron pins. This way it is always clear whether one is in Belgium (Baarle-Hertog) or in the Netherlands (Baarle-Nassau). This is also visible on the house numbers: the style of house numbers is different in both countries, and often the Dutch or Belgian flag next to the house number indicates which country it belongs to.

Localities

 * Baarle-Nassau (population: 5,330)
 * Ulicoten (1,110)
 * Castelré (140)

Dutch enclaves
These are all part of Baarle-Nassau municipality.

Belgian enclaves
These are all part of Baarle-Hertog municipality, and are surrounded by Baarle-Nassau municipality (Netherlands).

Education
Baarle-Nassau has two primary schools: Basisschool De Uilenpoortand and Bernardusschool, the latter in the Ulicoten section. There is a single secondary school in Baarle-Nassau, De La Salle, which has Voorbereidend middelbaar beroepsonderwijs, lower Hoger algemeen voortgezet onderwijs, and Voorbereidend wetenschappelijk onderwijs levels.

It shares, with Baarle-Hertog, a joint library with Belgian and Dutch staff.

Notable people

 * Petrus Christus (c. 1410/1420 in Baarle – 1475/1476) an Early Netherlandish painter; was a leading painter after the death of Jan van Eyck
 * Jan Hendrikx (born 1944) a former Dutch politician, mayor of Baarle-Nassau 1990–2012

title: Baarle-Nassau


text:
Bergeijk

Bergeijk ( Brabantian: Bérgààjk) is a municipality and town in southern Netherlands, in the province of North Brabant. It consists of an area of undefined km2 and had a population of 0 in. It is one of 21 municipalities, including Eindhoven, that make up the Eindhoven Region Cooperative (Samenwerkingsverband Regio Eindhoven).

The spoken language is Kempenlands (an East Brabantian dialect, which is very similar to colloquial Dutch).

Bergeijk has traditionally been an agricultural area, but tourism and recreation are steadily gaining importance. Among the facilities in the municipality of Bergeijk is a bungalow park in the village Westerhoven.

Bergeijk is known in the Netherlands as a Rietveld village, for its architecture by De Stijl architect Gerrit Rietveld, and for a program on national radio: Radio Bergeijk, a parody on local radio.

Population centres
• Bergeijk

• Boscheind

• Braambosch

• Hof

• 't Loo

• Loveren

• Luyksgestel

• Riethoven

• Rijt

• Sengelsbroek

• Walik

• Weebosch

• Westerhoven

Topography

Topographic map of the municipality of Bergeijk, June 2015.

Notable people

 * Henk van Gerven (born 1955 in Riethoven) a Dutch politician and general practitioner
 * Wilbert Das (born 1963) a Dutch fashion designer, grew up in Riethoven

Sport

 * Harm van Veldhoven (born 1962 in Luyksgestel) a Dutch-Belgian football manager
 * Kees Koolen (born 1965 in Bergeijk) a Dutch rally raid racer and businessman
 * Tommie van der Leegte (born 1977 in Bergeijk) a retired Dutch footballer with 334 club caps
 * Rudi van Houts (born 1984 in Luyksgestel) a Dutch road cyclist and mountain biker, competed in the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics
 * Harrie Lavreysen (born 1997 in Luyksgestel) double Olympic champion in track cycling at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo

title: Bergeijk