Vlissingen Vlissienge (Zeeuws) Flushing | |
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 Boulevard with beach  Harbour | |
 Flag  Coat of arms | |
.svg) Location in Zeeland | |
  Vlissingen Location within the Netherlands Show map of Netherlands Vlissingen Location within Europe Show map of Europe | |
| Coordinates:51°27′N3°34′E / 51.450°N 3.567°E /51.450; 3.567 | |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Province | Zeeland |
| Boroughs | 8 Districts
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| Government | |
| • Body | Municipal council |
| • Mayor | Bas van den Tillaar (CDA) |
| Area | |
• Total | 344.84 km2 (133.14 sq mi) |
| • Land | 34.31 km2 (13.25 sq mi) |
| • Water | 310.53 km2 (119.90 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 1 m (3.3 ft) |
| Population (January 2021)[4] | |
• Total | 44,358 |
| • Density | 1,293/km2 (3,350/sq mi) |
| Demonym | Vlissinger |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Postcode | 4380–4389 |
| Area code | 0118 |
| Website | vlissingen |
Vlissingen (Dutch:[ˈvlɪsɪŋə(n)]ⓘ;Zeelandic:Vlissienge) is amunicipality and acity in the southwesternNetherlands on the island ofWalcheren. With its strategic location between theScheldt river and theNorth Sea, Vlissingen has been an important harbour for centuries. It was grantedcity rights in 1315. In the 17th century the roadstead of Vlissingen was a main harbour for ships of theDutch East India Company (VOC). It is also known as the birthplace of Lieutenant-AdmiralMichiel de Ruyter.
Vlissingen is mainly noted for the yards on theScheldt where most of the ships of theRoyal Netherlands Navy (Koninklijke Marine) are built.
The municipality of Vlissingen consists of the following places:
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The fishermen's hamlet that came into existence at the estuary of theSchelde around AD 620 has grown over its 1,400-year history into the third-most important port of theNetherlands. TheCounts of Holland,Flanders, andZeeland had the first harbours dug. Over the centuries, Vlissingen developed into a hub for fishing, especially theherring fishery, commerce, privateering and theslave trade.
The first reliable records of Old Vlissengen date from a charter of 1247, when the town already had a church and an infirmary; another in 1264 mentions asteenhuus or castle, the foundations of which were uncovered during the construction of a new town hall in 1965. In 1294, the town was purchased byFloris V, Count of Holland, who recognised the strategic and economic potential of its location and began its development. The port facilities were further extended in the mid-15th century, financed by a local monopoly in the herring trade. In the mid-16th century, the town fell into poverty due to theEighty Years' War, the Dutch revolt against Spanish occupation, and particularly owing to the punitive taxes imposed by theDuke of Alba. In April 1572, the townspeople staged a successful uprising, expelling the Flemish garrison, firing at ships bringing reinforcements and hanging a Spanish nobleman in front of the town hall.[5] Under theTreaty of Nonsuch in 1585,English garrisons were stationed here and atBrill to keep these ports out of Spanish hands. The towns were sold back to the Dutch in 1616.[6]
During the heyday of theDutch Golden Age, ships from Vlissingen set sail for the various outposts of theDutch colonial empire and contributed to the world power of theSeven Provinces.
The history of Vlissingen was also marked by invasion, oppression and bombardments. Because of its strategic position at the mouth of theSchelde, the most important passageway toAntwerp, it has attracted the interest, at one time or another, of the British, the French, the Germans and the Spanish. Floods have also been a constant threat. Vlissingen declined during the 18th century. TheNapoleonic Wars were particularly disastrous. After 1870, the economy revived after the construction of new docks and theWalcheren canal, the arrival of the railway and the establishment of the shipyard called De Schelde. TheSecond World War interrupted this growth. The city was heavily damaged by shelling and inundation butwas captured and liberated by BritishCommandos of4th Special Service Brigade on 3 November 1944.
The city was rebuilt after the war. In the 1960s, the seaport and industrial area of Vlissingen-Oost developed and flourished. Now this area is the economic driving force behind centralZeeland, generating many thousands of jobs. Nowadays approx. 50,000 ships annually from all corners of the world pass through the Schelde.[7]
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The derivation of the name Vlissingen is unclear, though most scholars relate the name to the wordfles ("bottle") in one way or another.
According to one story,[by whom?] whenSaint Willibrord landed in Vlissingen with a bottle in the 7th century, he shared its contents with the beggars he found there while trying to convert them. A miracle occurred, typical ofhagiography, when the contents of the bottle did not diminish. When the bishop realised the beggars did not want to listen to his words, he gave them his bottle. After that, he supposedly called the cityFlessinghe.
Another source[who?] states that the name had its origins in an old ferry-service house, on which a bottle was attached by way of a sign. The monk Jacob van Dreischor, who visited the city in 967, then apparently called the ferry-househet veer aan de Flesse ("the ferry at the Bottle"). Because many cities in the region later received the appendix-inge, the name, according to this etymology, evolved toVles-inge.
According to another source,[who?] the name was derived from the Danish wordVles, which means "tides".
The eastern cape ofNovaya Zemlya,Cape Flissingsky was named after the city in 1596 byWillem Barentsz.
Vlissingen was historically called "Flushing" in English. In the 17th century, Vlissingen was important enough for English speakers that it had acquired an anglicised name. For example,Samuel Pepys referred to the town as "Flushing" in his diaries. In 1673, Sir William Temple referred to Vlissingen as "Flushing" once and "Flussingue" twice in his book about the Netherlands.[8] Some English writers in the Netherlands also used the Dutch name.
The American settlement ofFlushing, originally a Dutch colonial village founded in 1645 and now part ofQueens,New York City, was first called Vlissingen after the town in the Netherlands. The English settlers who also came to live in the village[9] shortened the name to "Vlissing" by 1657 and then began to call it by its English name "Flushing". The Anglicisation of "Vlissingen" into "Flushing" did not occur after the conquest ofNew Netherland, but in England well before then. This village was the site of theFlushing Remonstrance.
The village ofFlushing in Cornwall was also named after Vlissingen. Originally named Nankersey, the village was given its name by Dutch engineers from Vlissingen in the Netherlands who built the three main quays in the village. Michigan and Ohio in the US have villages called Flushing as well.
Topographic map of Vlissingen (city), Sept. 2014
Vlissingen has a temperateoceanic climate (Köppen climate classificationCfb) that is milder than the rest of the Netherlands due to its more southern location on the coast.[10] It is approximately 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer annually thanGroningen in the northeast. It is also one of the sunniest cities in the Netherlands, receiving approximately 180 more sunshine hours thanMaastricht in the southeast. Its all-time record is 36.8 °C (98.2 °F) set on 27 July 2018 and −18.9 °C (−2.0 °F) on 21 February 1956.
| Climate data for Vlissingen (1991−2020 normals, extremes 1906−present) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 14.2 (57.6) | 16.9 (62.4) | 21.1 (70.0) | 29.9 (85.8) | 34.9 (94.8) | 34.6 (94.3) | 37.3 (99.1) | 34.2 (93.6) | 33.2 (91.8) | 25.0 (77.0) | 18.3 (64.9) | 14.8 (58.6) | 37.3 (99.1) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 6.4 (43.5) | 6.8 (44.2) | 9.6 (49.3) | 13.3 (55.9) | 16.8 (62.2) | 19.6 (67.3) | 21.8 (71.2) | 22.0 (71.6) | 19.0 (66.2) | 14.8 (58.6) | 10.4 (50.7) | 7.2 (45.0) | 14.0 (57.2) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 4.5 (40.1) | 4.6 (40.3) | 6.8 (44.2) | 9.8 (49.6) | 13.3 (55.9) | 16.1 (61.0) | 18.4 (65.1) | 18.6 (65.5) | 16.1 (61.0) | 12.4 (54.3) | 8.5 (47.3) | 5.4 (41.7) | 11.2 (52.2) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 2.6 (36.7) | 2.6 (36.7) | 4.4 (39.9) | 6.9 (44.4) | 10.2 (50.4) | 13.0 (55.4) | 15.4 (59.7) | 15.6 (60.1) | 13.4 (56.1) | 10.1 (50.2) | 6.5 (43.7) | 3.5 (38.3) | 8.7 (47.7) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −15.3 (4.5) | −18.9 (−2.0) | −6.5 (20.3) | −3.3 (26.1) | 0.8 (33.4) | 5.0 (41.0) | 8.3 (46.9) | 8.9 (48.0) | 3.9 (39.0) | −1.9 (28.6) | −7.5 (18.5) | −13.5 (7.7) | −18.9 (−2.0) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 58.9 (2.32) | 52.8 (2.08) | 44.6 (1.76) | 35.0 (1.38) | 49.4 (1.94) | 62.0 (2.44) | 72.4 (2.85) | 81.8 (3.22) | 73.6 (2.90) | 73.8 (2.91) | 78.9 (3.11) | 75.7 (2.98) | 758.9 (29.88) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 1 mm) | 12 | 9 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 128 |
| Average snowy days | 5 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 18 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 86.9 | 85.1 | 82.1 | 77.1 | 76.8 | 77.4 | 77.4 | 77.5 | 79.6 | 83.3 | 86.9 | 87.4 | 81.5 |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 76.3 | 99.0 | 155.5 | 207.5 | 233.8 | 230.1 | 232.1 | 217.0 | 170.8 | 127.0 | 77.4 | 62.5 | 1,889 |
| Percentagepossible sunshine | 29.1 | 35.0 | 42.2 | 49.7 | 48.4 | 46.4 | 46.5 | 47.9 | 44.9 | 38.2 | 28.8 | 25.4 | 40.2 |
| Source 1:Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (1991–2020 normals, precipitation days normals for 1981–2010, snowy days normals for 1971–2000)[11][12] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute[13] | |||||||||||||
| Climate data for Vlissingen | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average sea temperature °C | 6.6 | 5.8 | 6.9 | 9.5 | 13.2 | 16.6 | 19.0 | 20.0 | 18.4 | 15.3 | 11.4 | 8.0 | 12.6 |
| Mean daily daylight hours | 8.0 | 10.0 | 12.0 | 14.0 | 16.0 | 17.0 | 16.0 | 15.0 | 13.0 | 11.0 | 9.0 | 8.0 | 12.4 |
| AverageUltraviolet index | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3.5 |
| Source: Weather Atlas[14] | |||||||||||||
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Media related toVlissingen at Wikimedia Commons
Vlissingen travel guide from WikivoyagePlaces adjacent to Vlissingen | |
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