Middelie is a village in the
Dutch province of
North Holland
North Holland ( nl, Noord-Holland, ) is a province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevoland. In November 2019, it had a ...
. It is a part of the municipality of
Edam-Volendam, and lies about 5 km northeast of
Purmerend.
History
The village was first mentioned in 1277 as Homines de Middela, and means "the middle river". Middelie developed in the 12th century as a
peat excavation settlement.
It used to be a fishing village, but after the
Purmer was ''
polder
A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as dikes. The three types of polder are:
# Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a lake or the seabed
# Flood plains s ...
''ed, it lost its connection to the sea and the village stagnated. During the
Reformation,
Mennonites settled in the village, and used to make up half the population until the 20th century.
The Mennonite church is a modest aisleless church which was built in 1899 as a replacement of a wooden church.
In 2013, ownership was transferred to a foundation and is used for weddings, meetings and concerts.
Middelie was home to 324 people in 1840.
It was a separate municipality until 1970, when the new municipality of Zeevang was created.
In 2016, it became part of the municipality of
Edam-Volendam.
References
External links
*
Former municipalities of North Holland
Populated places in North Holland
Geography of Edam-Volendam
{{NorthHolland-geo-stub