Meeuwen is a village in southern

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. It is located in

Altena Altena (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Altenoa'') is a town in the district of Märkischer Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The town's castle is the origin for the later Dukes of Berg. Altena is situated on the Lenne river valley, i ...

North Brabant North Brabant ( ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, Dutch Brabant or Hollandic Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to ...

, about 8 km northwest of

Waalwijk Waalwijk () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the southern Netherlands. It had a population of in and is located near the A59 and N261 motorways. The villages of Capelle, Vrijhoeve-Capelle, Sprang (the former mun ...

History

The village was first mentioned in 850 as Medua, and means "hay land". Meeuwen is a stretched village on the banks of the

Bergse Maas The Bergsche Maas (; History of Dutch orthography, current spelling: Bergsche Maas) is a canal that was constructed in 1904 to be a branch of the river Meuse, Maas (French: Meuse) in the Dutch province of North Brabant. The Maas splits near Heusde ...

. It was almost complete destroyed in the St. Elizabeth's flood of 1421, and later rebuilt. The Dutch Reformed church was largely destroyed in 1944, and rebuilt in 1953. Huis te Meeuwen used to be a castle built before 1355. It was demolished in the 1840s and only the canal and foundations are still present. It was replaced an estate with tower which burnt down in 1936. The current building is farmhouse in

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of ...

style with a tower. The

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

De Witte Molen was built in 1740. It was damaged during World War II, and was restored, however it started to fall into disuse and was mainly used for storage. In 1987, it was moved because it was surrounded by industry and in 1993, the wind mill was restored to working order. It is occasionally used to grinding. Meeuwen was home to 334 people in 1840. In November 1944, the village was evacuated and Meeuwen becomes the front-line between the German army and the Allies. One emergency house which was built after the war still exists, and has been moved next to the wind mill. Meeuwen was a separate municipality until 1923, when it became part of Aalburg. Until 1908, the official name of the municipality was ''Meeuwen, Hill en Babyloniënbroek''. In 2019, it became part of

Gallery

File:Meeuwen, de Witte Molen RM6820 foto1 2012-10-22 14.11.jpg, Windmill: de Witte Molen File:Zicht op de voorgevel - Meeuwen - 20413636 - RCE.jpg, Farm in Meeuwen File:20070705Kasteel Meeuwen.jpg, Castle Meeuwen File:Sculptuur Medua in Meeuwen.jpg, Medua sculpture in Meeuwen

References

{{Authority control Populated places in North Brabant Former municipalities of North Brabant Geography of Altena, North Brabant