- This is about the city in the Netherlands. For other uses, see Middelburg (disambiguation).
| Middelburg | |||
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| — Municipality — | |||
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| Coordinates: 51°30′N 3°37′E / 51.500°N 3.617°ECoordinates: 51°30′N 3°37′E / 51.500°N 3.617°E | |||
| Country |  Netherlands |
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| Province | Zeeland | ||
| Area(2006) | |||
| • Total | 53.05 km2 (20.48 sq mi) | ||
| • Land | 48.64 km2 (18.78 sq mi) | ||
| • Water | 4.41 km2 (1.70 sq mi) | ||
| Population (1 June 2007) | |||
| • Total | 47,308 | ||
| • Density | 973/km2 (2,520/sq mi) | ||
| Source: CBS, Statline. | |||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
Middelburg [ˈmɪdəɫˌbʏrx] (
listen) is a municipality and a city in the south-western Netherlands and the capital of the province of Zeeland. It is situated in the Midden-Zeeland region. It has a population of about 48,000.
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History of Middelburg [edit]
The city of Middelburg dates back possibly to the late 8th century or early 9th century. The first mention of Middelburg was as one of three fortified towns (i.e., borgs) erected on Walcheren (then an island) to guard against Viking raids. In 844 a monastery was built on the site, which remained an active Catholic foundation until the Reformation. Foundations for Middelburg's "stately and picturesque" cathedral (one of only two pre-Reformation cathedrals in The Netherlands, along with St. Martin's in Utrecht) were first laid in the 10th century; additional construction continued through the Middle Ages.
Middelburg was granted city rights in 1217. During the Middle Ages, it became an important trading centre in the commerce between England and the rising cities of Flanders. The town continued to gain in power and prestige during the 13th and 14th centuries. In the Eighty Years' War, the northern provinces of the original Low Countries won their independence from their former Spanish Habsburg rulers and formed The Netherlands, a Protestant state. Later, in the 17th century (the Dutch Golden Age), Middelburg became, after Amsterdam, the most important center for the East India Company of Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (VOC) or Dutch East India Company.
Middelburg played an important role in 17th century slave trade.
Samuel Ben Israel, son of Menasseh Ben Israel, is buried in Middelburg at the Sephardic burial site located at the 'Jodengang' outside the citywall. Menasseh Ben Israel negotiated with Cromwell the opening of England, and their colonies, to the Jews. Middelburg also has an Ashkenazic burial site, which is located at the Walensingel inside the city wall. In 1994 the synagogue was restored, as it was partially destroyed during the Second World War. This synagogue was the third one to be build in the Netherlands during the golden age. In the hall of the railwaystation there is a plaque of remembrance for the Jews of Zeeland who started their journey to the deathcamps from Middelburg train station.
About a third of the old city centre was bombed in the early phases of World War II, on May 17, 1940, by the German Luftwaffe, to compel the surrender of the Dutch Army forces in Zeeland. After the War, as much of the destroyed part of the old town center was rebuilt and restored along pre-War lines as possible. The city's archives, however, had been incinerated during the German bombardment.
Modern Middelburg has preserved and regained much of its historic and picturesque character. There are lavish 17th and 18th century merchant houses and storehouses standing along canals, of a similar style as found in cities like Amsterdam. The old city moats are still there, as is one of the city gates, the Koepoort Gate. Part of the 18th century moat and defence works, however, were demolished in the 19th century, to make way for a commercial canal which crosses Walcheren from Vlissingen to Veere. The medieval abbey is still in use today, as a museum and as the seat of the provincial government.
The painter Pieter Gaal, (1769–1819) was born and, after traveling over Europe to paint, settled and died here.
Another well-known citizen of Middelburg was the Admiral and explorer, Jacob Roggeveen, who was born in the city in 1659, and died there in 1729. Roggeveen discovered Easter Island/Rapa Nui in the South Pacific on Easter Sunday, April 6, 1722. Further discoveries on the same journey included islands of the Tuamotu group, now part of French Polynesia.
Education [edit]
When William of Orange decided to found the first university in the Netherlands in 1575, he initially considered locating it in Middelburg. Ultimately he chose Leiden, however, and Middelburg—as well as all of Zeeland—remained without a university until 2004 when the Roosevelt Academy, affiliated with Utrecht University, was established.
Cultural institutions [edit]
Theaters and concerthalls [edit]
- Schouwburg
- Concertzaal Zeeland
- Spiegeltheater
- Minitheater
- Filmtheater Schuttershof
Topography [edit]
Topographic map image of Middelburg, 2011. Click to enlarge.
Climate and vegetation [edit]
The climate is a maritime climate (Cfb) with mild winters, cool summers and rainfall throughout the year with a maximum at the end of the summer and in the fall, while spring tends to be somewhat drier. The climate has warmed up since 1988 and winters are even milder than they used to be and they are extremely mild for the high latitude (51,5 degrees). Winters are dark and days are short with the sun only being 7–8 hours above the horizon. with the sun very low above the horizon. Especially mild winters tend to be very gloomy, with barely any sun and lots of wind and rain. Cold winters tend to be snowy, freezing but also and sunny. You can find people skating on the canals near the city. On the flipside from may to July the sun does not dip below the horizon far enough so officially it is never night. Only twilight and especially near 20 June under bright conditions it never gets dark and the horizon is always lit up by the sun just behind it.
As said, rainfall is pretty even throughout the year and averages at about 810 mm per annum (1981-2010, source KNMI). This is on a rather steep rise in recent years but it has risen since at least 1900. It can be linked to global warming at least in part, as warmer air can contain more moisture. This leads to more cloud formation hence more rain. Adding to this is the regional effect the warming has on the nearby North Sea, which has become 2 C warmer over the ast 50 years. This leads to more evaporation. This is why coastal regions are experiencing a steeper rise in rainfall amounts than areas in the east of the country. Middelburg is no exception.
The climate is good for agriculture surrounding the city. Grain, sugarbeet, potatoes, corn and grassland for horses and cows are the most common sight. Also apple and peartrees are cultivated. In the city you'll find all sorts of broadleaved and coniferous species which do well in the cool climate. Near the Abby complex there a couple of beautiful red beeches. Some large conifers can be found in the city centre as well (Norway spruce, Taxus and Dawn Redwood). Especially spruces tend to get too big for gardens are cutdown after a few years. At Ter Hooge, a nice castle to the west of the city, there is a small beech forest with some oak, combined with some specimentrees of Norway and Serbian spruce, Sequia Sepmpervirens (Redwood), Caucasian Fir and Larch trees. In gardens people tend to plant a mix of coniferous and broadleaved species. Christmas trees (Firs and spruces) are planted on many occasions after Christmas. Also people try to plant more subtropical trees like figs or palm trees and even olive trees, given the warming of the climate. If taken care of in winter, these can survive even though they are not well suited for the climate everstill.
To get an idea of the climate the KNMI station of Vlissingen and Wilhelminadorp (Goes), both of the KNMI, will give a good impression.
In detail there is a marked difference between Vlissingen (KNMI data) and Middelburg, especially in warm summers and even more in cold winters or during colder spells. Especially minimumtemperatures year round tend to be much lower than in Vlissingen (Flushing). To give you an impression; the minima in Middelburg are much closer to stations 200 km to the North East than Vlissingen 8 km to the southwes...This is because of the city being 8 km inland while Vlissingen KNMI is only 10 m from the shore. The influence of the tempering sea is huge there. The KNMI station from Vlissingen was placed from the current, shore position to 3 km inland (just south of Middelburg) from 1948 to 1957. To the surprise of the meteorologist, temperatures were much lower. To such an extend that there could be no correction calculated for it. On occasion, these differences can amount 10 C. Especially during clear summernights after hot, dry days. The coldrecord was easily broken in that short period and went from -16 to -20 in 1956. To give an indication about how remarkable this was, the chief of the KNMI station did not believe this value and checked the thermometer himself again. In later years, calibrated measurements just 2 kilometers northeast of Middelburg have shown that these differences indeed are common. Temperatures differences of 7 to 10 C have been recorded frequently, as mentioned especially in calm summernights and snowcovered bright winternights. Tropical nights (minimum temperatures above 20,0 C) have never been measured near Middelburg in the last 15 years, they were not infrequent in Vlissingen. Also temperatures have dropped near the record values after 1956 near Middelburg, but never dipped below -12 in Vlissingen. Another example is the record low for August in Vlissingen. This is about 9- 10 C over the last 40 years. A value that is reached virtually every year in Middelburg. The reason for these differences are the distance to the sea, low lying areas cooling and warming easily, less wind and longer and deeper snowcovers in winter, with snow remaining fresher because of no thaw, making it more radiative. This difference is not confined to Vlissingen, also Wilhelminadorp KNMI 20 km east of Middelburg tends to record (much) higher temperatures in clear nights with a snowcover, while summernights are similar. For example, in 2012 Middelburg noted -17,2 C and 6 days with a minimum between -10 and -15 C and an average of -9,5 C over the first ten days. Vlissingen and Wilhelminadorp never went below -11 C and this was the only day with a temperature below -10 C there. Moreover, the average on those stations was 2 to 4 C higher than Middelburg Northeast.
Another thing that also can be seen on KNMI charts is the fact that snowcover is bigger and last a lot longer in Middelburg than the coast especially, but also to all other parts of the province. The explanation, at least since 2002, is that lake effect snowshowers do reach the city, but the mild air frequently does not. In those situations, amateurstations directly on the coast note temperatures well above freezing and even rain while in Middelburg the mercury remains just or well below zero with snowfall. Just a couple of kilometers more inland the snowshowers break up and no snowfall is recorded. In this way, Middelburg seems to be in just the right (or wrong) position. An example is the period 27 November 2010 to 30 December 2010 in which Middelburg had 26 days with a snowcover, Wilhelminadorp 18 and Vlissingen 17 days (KNMI data). The cumulative snowcover in Middelburg was between 161 cm and 223 cm (two KNMI stations) while coastal stations (Westkapelle) reached 84 cm over that period.
The biggest snowcover in recent years was 20–27 cm in February 2003 and December 2010 and the highest ever may have been no more than 35 cm or so in 1957 or 1958. Snowcover measurements tend to be difficult because many times they coincide with a lot of wind, piling snow up to dunes of a meter or so in one place with bare soil next to it.
In summer, temperature differences are big at night but less so at day. In general though, in warm conditions Middelburg is warmer than the coast and sea breezes have an effect but not as big as on the coast. In general a sharp rise is cut off, in spring a clear fall in temperature is more common. In summer most of the time the temperature rise stops in the (late) afternoon. Again, compared to climate charts of Vlissingen we will rarely see a big difference this time. That is because of a peculiarity: the seabreeze comes from the north. This means that Vlissingen can remain 5-7 C cooler all day with an east or southeast wind. Meanwhile, much warmer air is situated to the north of the city (Middelburg). The incoming northerly seabreeze first pushes the hot air over Vlissingen giving a short sharp rise in temperature followed by a subsequent fall afterwards. Also; the KNMI station is situated with the city surround it to the north, giving the mercury a slight extra push when the seabreezes kicks in. In the average maximum the duration of the maximum is not noted, the difference is there anyways. Highest temperatures recorded in recent years in Middelburg (countryside) is 36,1 C in 2003 and 36,6 C in 2006. In most years, the absolute maximum is mostly 32 or 33 C on no more than a couple of days.
Note that these are details and the climate of Zeeland and the whole Netherlands and even the whole continenetal North Sea area is very even because of the lack of mountains and proximity to the sea in combination with a dominant westerly flow.
Other exceptional weather events can be the occasional supercell thunderstorm (may be one or two per year) which rarely produce tornado's. In recent history only one tornadic event (August 1994) went just soutwest of the city leaving a trail of damage from Ritthem to Kapelle in which cars were picked up by the funnel and severely damaged. Waterspouts are pretty frequent along the coast but they never reach Middelburg and only very big ones can partially be seen from the outskirts in the west of the city every once in a while.
Somewhat frequent events are noctilucent clouds near the pinnacle of summer, which can only be seen outside of the city. These are iceclouds which are situated much above normal cloud layers at 80 km or so. They have a neanonblue like, beautiful appearance. Another astronimical phenomenon is Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights). These in fact occur every year on a few days, but rarely are spectacular. Once in every 10–12 years, the auroral oval can be pushed even south of the city and a corona can be seen. The cloudy climate prevents sightings on many occasions, so spectacular displays as said are pretty year and tend to focus near sunspot maxima on the sun.
Transportation [edit]
Middelburg has a railway station with intercity train connections to Vlissingen, Goes, Roosendaal, Rotterdam, The Hague, Leiden, Schiphol International Airport and Amsterdam, among others.
Sports [edit]
Middelburg has a field hockey club, MMHC, a rugby club, Oemoemenoe, and four football (soccer) clubs: MZVC, Zeelandia Middelburg, Jong Ambon and FC Dauwendaele. Jong Ambon is translated Young Ambon, and consists of mostly Ambonese players. FC Dauwendaele is the main club in Dauwendaele.
Population centres [edit]
Zuid [edit]
Zuid ("South") is a neighbourhood in Middelburg. It is situated next to Dauwendaele. The neighbourhood consists of mostly residential building projects. The town of Oost-Souburg lies to the south, as does Flushing.
The West part of Zuid was built in the mid-1970s, the East part was built later, mainly in the late 1980s and early 1990s. There are significant changes in architecture between the West and East parts.
There are educational and recreational facilities available. There numerous Sports teams in positioned in the neighborhood, mainly soccer teams, but also a couple of basketball and hockey teams.
Twin cities [edit]
Vilvoorde, Belgium
Nagasaki, Japan
Głogów, Poland
Simeria, Romania- Teiuş, Romania
Folkestone, United Kingdom
References [edit]
External links [edit]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Middelburg |
- Official city website (in Dutch with a limited English section)
- Tourism Middelburg
- municipal data (in Dutch)
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Veerse Meer / Noord-Beveland | |
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| Vlissingen | Borsele |
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