Woensdrecht (village)

Woensdrecht (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈʋunzdrɛxt] ) is a municipality (named after the village) in the southern Netherlands. Woensdrecht is the home of the Woensdrecht Air Base, which is located to the north-east of the village of Woensdrecht and to the north-west of Huijbergen.

Ossendrecht is a village in the Dutch province of North Brabant. It is located in the municipality of Woensdrecht, about 12 km southeast of Bergen op Zoom. The village was first mentioned in 1187 as "Alardus de Ossendreht", and is a combination of ferry / waterway and ox. Ossendrecht developed around a triangular village square.During the 19th century, Ossendrecht became a centre of cichorium cultivation and processing. Ossendrecht was home to 214 people in 1840. Ossendrecht was a separate municipality until 1997, when it became part of Woensdrecht.

Woensdrecht Air Base (Dutch: Vliegbasis Woensdrecht) (IATA: WOE, ICAO: EHWO) is a military airport between the villages of Woensdrecht and Huijbergen, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) south of the city of Bergen op Zoom in the Netherlands. It is located near the A58 motorway and the border with Belgium. The airport was founded in 1934 as a glider and training airfield for the Royal Netherlands Air Force. During German occupation in the Second World War, the airfield was expanded. Messerschmitt Bf 109 and later Focke-Wulf Fw 190 aircraft were deployed here by the Luftwaffe. The airfield was captured by Allied forces in December 1944 and used as an Advanced Landing Ground. After the war, it was used once again by the Royal Netherlands Air Force for training purposes. In 1983 it was decided that Woensdrecht would house 48 Ground Launched Cruise Missiles fitted with nuclear warheads for the 486th Tactical Missile Wing of the U.S. Seventeenth Air Force. The missile wing would have had a maximum complement of 1100 personnel. However, just after completion of the required facilities, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty put a halt to these plans. The airport currently has one runway, 07/25, which is 2,440 metres (8,010 ft) long. It is now mainly used by the Royal Netherlands Air Force as a training and logistical base and normally does not house any combat units. It currently also has one civilian user, Fokker Services, a company providing maintenance, primarily but not exclusively for Fokker aircraft. Because of the presence of Fokker Services, many Fokker aircraft are usually present at the airfield. The Royal Netherlands Air Force mainly operates the Pilatus PC-7 for initial training from this air base.

The Kreekrakdam is a 3.5 km long dam, that was constructed from 1861 to 1867 as a necessary part of the Roosendaal–Vlissingen railway, the so-called Zeeuwse Lijn (Zealandic Line). Additionnaly this dam connected the island of Zuid-Beveland with the mainland of Brabant across the Kreekrak waterway.

Bergen op Zoom is a railway station located in Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands. The station was opened on 23 December 1863 and is located on the Roosendaal–Vlissingen railway. The services are operated by Nederlandse Spoorwegen.

The Gertrudiskerk is a church approachable from the large market in the center of Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands. The towers of the church are called "pepper plant towers". An old legend says Saint Gertrude of Nivelles, abbess of the abbey in Nivelles, founded the church in 654. The older part of the church consisting of the towers, dates to around 1370. These were later incorporated in probably the fourteenth and fifteenth century when changes were made to the church. The building at that time was used for Catholic worship services. The current church building, completed in 1477 was designed by Evert Spoorwater. He devised a new chancel with chancel ambulatory and vaults in the ship style of the Brabantine Gothic.

Huijbergen is a village in the Dutch province of North Brabant. It is located in the municipality of Woensdrecht, about 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) southeast of Bergen op Zoom, close to the Belgian border.

Het Verdronken Land van Reimerswaal (translation: The Drowned Land of Reimerswaal) is an area of flood-covered land in Zeeland in the Netherlands between Noord Beveland and Bergen op Zoom. Some of it was lost in the St. Felix's Flood in 1530, and some of it in 1532. The Oosterschelde formerly flowed along its east and north edges. It is sometimes divided into the "Verdronken Land van Zuid-Beveland" and the "Verdronken Land van de Markiezaat van Bergen op Zoom". Verdronken is Dutch for "drowned", and Markizaat van Bergen op Zoom is the marquisate of Bergen op Zoom). The Dutch land reclamation engineer and writer Vierlingh blamed the loss of that land on a landowner called the Lord of Lodijke neglecting a tidal creek which was scouring at every tide. After the land was lost, the city of Reimerswaal survived on a small island for a while.

Bergen op Zoom (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌbɛrɣə(n) ɔp ˈsoːm] ; called Berrege [ˈbɛrəɣə] in the local dialect) is a city and municipality in the Southwestern Netherlands. It is located in the province of North Brabant, at the provincial border with Zeeland. In January 2021, the municipality had a population of 67,514.

Zandvliet (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈzɑntflit]) is a former Belgian town forming part of the Antwerp district of Berendrecht-Zandvliet-Lillo. The place dates back to 1135 when it was known as Santflit, meaning "a navigable passage through sand". In 1622 the Spaniard Ambrogio Spinola constructed a fortification with seven bastions around Zandvliet, to strengthen the defenses of Antwerp against the northern Netherlands. The project lasted six years and gave the town the appearance of a citadel. At the beginning of the 18th century France drove Spain from Zandvliet after which the fortress became derelict. Traces of the original fortress can be seen in the street layout of Conterscherp, Zuidvest and Begijnhoeve. The church in Zandvliet was destroyed during the wars against Spain, but was rebuilt in 1648 by the bishop of Saint Michael's Abbey in Antwerp. After Belgium gained its independence in 1830, J. Bril became the first Belgian mayor of Zandvliet. In 1887 a rail link between Antwerp and Bergen op Zoom also linked to Zandvliet. This line mainly transported sugar beet, but also catered for passengers. In 1958 Berendrecht, Zandvliet and Lillo were incorporated in Antwerp and the polder landscape largely expropriated for harbour development. Since the decentralisation of 2000 these three old communities were joined under the name of Bezali, an acronym used by the media. The people of Berendrecht-Zandvliet-Lillo on the other hand were proud of the original names and used them in the hope that they would not be forgotten. The name Zandvliet became a household name, thanks to the 1967 naming of Zandvlietsluis, one of the largest sea locks in the world.

The Scheldt–Rhine Canal (Schelde-Rijnkanaal) in Belgium and the Netherlands connects Antwerp with the Volkerak, and thereby the Scheldt with the Rhine.

Berendrecht (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈbeːrə(n)drɛxt] ), Zandvliet (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈzɑntflit]) and Lillo (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈlɪloː]) are three towns along the seaport docks north of the old city of Antwerp in Flanders, Belgium. The substantial 1983 merger with former municipalities, led in 2000 to the decentralisation of this enlarged municipality of Antwerp while these three towns merged into one of the city's districts, called Berendrecht-Zandvliet-Lillo or Bezali.