Reek is a village in the
Dutch province of
North Brabant
North Brabant ( nl, Noord-Brabant ; Brabantian: ; ), also unofficially called 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 th ...
. It is located in the former municipality of
Landerd, about 3 km east of
Schaijk.
History
Reek developed as a stretched out village in the Middle Ages.
It used to be part of the which became a Catholic enclave of
Palatinate-Neuburg within the
Dutch Republic
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands ( Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
in 1631.
The land van Ravenstein was conquered by France in 1794, and sold to the
Batavian Republic (the predecessor of the Kingdom of the Netherlands) in 1800.
The former nunnery St Elisabeth was founded in 1857 by the Sister Penitenten from
Haaren. The St Anthonius Abt Church was built in 1925 and 1926 and has the tower in the corner. It replaced an 1823 church.
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 Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...
Hellemolen was built in 1832. In 1948, it was put up for sale and the interior and part of the exterior were sold. In 2013, it was bad shape, but bought and restored the next year. By 2016, it could be used again.
Reek was home to 798 people in 1840.
Reek was a separate municipality until 1942, when it became part of
Schaijk.
In 2022, it became part of the new municipality of
Maashorst
Maashorst is a municipality in the province of North Brabant, the Netherlands, formed from the merger of Landerd and Uden. The municipality came into existence on 1 January 2022. The name Maashorst refers to the nature reserve of the same name, w ...
.
The is a nature area. It used to belong to the
Ministry of Defence, and consists mainly of sand and forest with some heath.
Gallery