By Jim Goyjer
Bergen op Zoom is a historic city in the province of North Brabant in the Netherlands. It’s at the end of a long inlet that leads to the North Sea. This city is surrounded by parks, woods, and heathlands, and it is on a large recreational bay with a beach. This city by the bay offers culture, shopping, sports, and a diverse selection of restaurants, cafes, and taverns, many with outdoor terraces.
Bergen op Zoom has over 800 years of history, during which it was destroyed and rebuilt numerous times. But you can’t keep a good town down. Over 600 historic buildings have survived the onslaughts of wars, sieges, fires, plagues, and floods. All the buildings can be found in the city center. Some noteworthy are Gevangenpoort (Prison Gate), the Grote Kerk (Big Church), also known as Sint-Gertrudiskerk (St. Gertrude’s Church) and its most prominent structure, Markiezenhof, which is the oldest city palace of the Netherlands.
The city was built where two types of soil intermingled, sand and marine clay, creating a wetland. Over the centuries, the tightly soiled relationship generated a ridge or a crest amid a marsh—a natural Claymation creation.
Eons ago, the Neanderthals settled in the area until the brainier hom*o Sapiens replaced them. Thousands of millennia later came the Romans. There was no major Roman settlement in Bergen op Zoom, but it was part of the Roman Empire. After the Romans jumped on their Vespas back to Rome, in the 5th century, the locals started calling those protruding mounds the “Brabantse Wal,” literally meaning “Ramparts of Brabant.” The word “Zoom” (pronounced: “zoum”) refers to the border surrounding these low-lying ramparts.
In the 9th century, the Vikings, from present-day Scandinavia, saw opportunities for trade, settlement, and cultural mayhem throughout Europe. Their homeland was overpopulated, and they had a surplus of silver that lay underground for use as currency. The Vikings raided and captured numerous Dutch settlements along the coast and waterways, including Bergen op Zoom in 880. Their influence lasted a couple of hundred years and eventually, they were assimilated into the native culture through the love of stroopwafels and poffertjes.
As the settlement grew, the city bordering the hill became a trading hub and an important location for any autocrat wanting control of the surrounding area, specifically the three islands that lay west toward the North Sea to be known later as the province of Zeeland. Because of its location, the city was considered the ‘Key to Zeeland.’ In other words, whoever controlled Bergen op Zoom controlled the province of Zeeland.
Prized for its strategic location, the town was ruled by several different powerful nobles and hereditary fiefdoms in the Dark Ages. In 1212, it was granted city rights, giving it numerous privileges that other towns didn’t have, such as collecting taxes, minting coins, holding markets, earning an income, and handing out parking tickets.
Bergen op Zoom became wealthy and a stronghold for large armories and weapon arsenals. In the Middle Ages, control of the city fell into the hands of the Belgian van Glymes family through marriage. Jan II van Glymes (1417-1494), also known as “Jan with the big lips,” inherited Bergen op Zoom from his parents. In 1444, he married and sired 13 children. His wealthy wife was smitten by those big lips and spent most of her life pregnant. She was not the only one attracted to his lips. It’s alleged that Jan II had fifty children with various other women.
Outside the bedroom, Jan II was also an influential diplomat. He met with the Pope, attended several coronations, and had numerous visitations from European nobility, including kings, queens, emperors, and CEOs. The philosopher Desiderius Erasmus was employed by him. Erasmus (1466 –1536) was a Dutch Christian humanist, theologian, mentor, and satirist. He developed a biblical humanistic theology in which he advocated tolerance, peace, and free-thinking on disagreements. Erasmus inspired Jan II to expand Bergen op Zoom, not with more kids, but with buildings to enhance his prestige and legacy.
Under Jan II’s reign, several structures were built or enlarged in the town, such as St. Gertrudis Church and Markiezenhof. When Jan II died in 1494, church bells rang for thirty days. Sixty-five masses were held in churches and at his funeral casket. On the day of his death, each poor person received 1½ pennies. Big lips also had a big heart, thanks to Erasmus.
Over the next centuries, Bergen op Zoom survived a series of sieges from Spain, England, France, and Germany. The fortified stronghold resisted Spanish rule and successfully held off several Spanish assaults between 1581 and 1622. Because Bergen op Zoom was never successfully taken in a siege, the town was nicknamed “The Virgin” by the Spanish. They hadn’t heard of Big Lips.
During the Eighty Years’ War (1566 – 1648), or the Dutch Revolt, for the liberation from Spain, Bergen op Zoom, although it was primarily Catholic, sided with the rebel Protestants and the Dutch Republic. In 1580 the Reformed Protestants plundered churches and monasteries. Many were jailed or executed. Reformed Protestants was a historic oxymoron. The Catholics high-tailed it out of town and dispersed into the countryside. They were able to return in the late 1800s and reestablished their prominence in city life.
The town was occupied by the French in 1747, because of the usual wars between the European countries. Too messy and too many to mention here. Again, it was all about control of territory, family feuds, and wealth. Bergen op Zoom was a fortress with a population of about 5,000 citizens and a battalion of 3,000 soldiers, under the command of the 86-year-old Governor General Isaac Cronström. The octogenarian was a Swedish baron and a general loaned out to the Dutch Republic. The Dutch were low on local generals. After more than two months of combat, the fortress was taken by the French. Cronström was held responsible for this but was not convicted. He died at the age of 90 at his Dutch estate, Castle Nemelaer, in the province of Brabant. Never to return to Sweden.
The French, English, and the Dutch were at it again later in the century. The Dutch were divided between those who loved the English (called Orangists), who promoted royal authoritarianism, and those who loved the French (called Patriots), who promoted liberty and democracy. Helped by the Patriots the area was overrun by the French during the French Revolution in 1794 and annexed by France in 1795. The town was once more besieged in March 1814 by the British, in a failed attempt to dislodge the French garrison. The English withdrew and turned to fight elsewhere. The French stayed until 1815 and left after Napoleon met his Waterloo. Exhausted with constant onslaughts, and by law, Bergen op Zoom’s fortifications were dismantled in 1867.
Then came the Germans who invaded and occupied the Netherlands in 1940 and stayed until 1945. The Germans were driven out of Bergen op Zoom during Operation Pheasant, in October-November 1944. Operation Pheasant’s mission was to retake the islands of Zeeland, which would facilitate free passage to Antwerp, Belgium. Antwerp was close and a crucial port for funneling supplies to the Allies for the defeat of Nazi Germany. Bergen op Zoom was the ‘Key to Zeeland.’ The key needed to be returned to its owners, the Dutch.
On October 27 the Canadian forces battled the German 6th Parachute Division on the outskirts of Bergen-op-Zoom. On the night of October 29, the Canadians entered the town, and heavy house-to-house fighting ensued. In one of those fights Canadian Sergeant Charles Kipp suddenly came face to face with a German soldier, Lieutenant Carl Heinz Hulst, who was aiming a machine gun at him.
When the German soldier was distracted for a second, Sergeant Kipp quickly turned his gun on Hulst. While standing about three meters apart, with guns pointing at each other, the two enemy soldiers stood frozen in time. Looking at each other in a quandary, they simultaneously started lowering their weapons toward the ground. Lieutenant Hulst saluted Kipp, performed an about-face, and disappeared. Sergeant Kipp saluted back and returned to his unit.
In 1986, Kipp met a group of German veterans from the 6th Parachute Regiment during a WWII Memorial ceremony in Bergen op Zoom. The group included Carl Heinz Holst. Kipp and Hulst recognized each other, after 42 years. Each had been telling the same story, independently, to their family and friends. Everyone thought it was a fabrication until they reunited at the Lincoln Memorial Bridge named for the Canadian South Alberta Regiment and the Lincoln & Welland Regiment that liberated the town in October 1944. Their story was now believed. Kipp and Holst became good friends and even went on vacations together.
After the liberation of the city, a strong Dutch-Canadian relationship was forged. That relationship is symbolized by the Tulip and is commemorated annually by the Dutch government gifting Tulips to Canada. Many Canadians died freeing Bergen op Zoom from the Nazis. Today, 968 are buried in the Canadian War Cemetery, including 64 from the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF).
The most famous monument in Bergen op Zoom is the Markiezenhof built in the 15th century. It’s considered the most beautiful medieval city palace, not only in the Netherlands but also in Western Europe. Another prominent monument is the 14th-century Lievevrouwepoort (Dear Lady Gate), popularly known as Gevangenpoort (Prison Gate), which was once a formidable fortification and the main entrance to the fully walled city fortress. Fittingly, it now contains an escape room.
Gertrudiskerk (Gertrude’s Church) is located on the main square in the center of the city. The oldest part of the church dates to around 1370. During the Dutch Revolt, in 1580, the church was plundered and thereafter used as a military warehouse. An onslaught by the French in 1747 left the church devastated. Rebuilding took place using Protestant funds and Protestant stones. In the second half of the 20th century, the church was returned to the Catholic community, and it is now a parish church.
In 1988 the former 19th century Catholic church, ‘De Maagd’, was being converted into a theater. During the restoration a plumber came across the coffin of Jan II of Glymes, or John with Big Lips, along with seven others, under the altar, now a stage. The half-decayed coffin was excavated, and the bones were reburied in a new coffin in St. Gertrudis Church. The lips were not recovered.
Founded in 1397 and located in the historic center, Grand Hotel de Draak, is the oldest hotel in the Netherlands. The current building is from 1500 and it is a protected monument. In the Middle Ages, merchants from England, France, Germany, and Italy, among others lodged at the inn, before it became a hotel. Their merchandise was stored in the cellars of the hotel and there was room for their horses, now for cars with lots of horsepower.
Bergen op Zoom is worth a day trip. Not many international tourists are seen wandering the streets of historic Bergen op Zoom. For anyone interested in a quiet day of soaking in Dutch history in the southwest of the Netherlands, it’s worth a leisurely day sipping a refreshment and eating a meal on the main square surrounded by hundreds of years of antiquity within a few blocks.
