Moerdijk


Moerdijk is a municipality, that includes also a village with the same name, in the province of North Brabant, the Netherlands.

History

The municipality of Moerdijk was founded in 1997 following the merger of the municipalities of Fijnaart en Heijningen, Klundert, Standdaarbuiten, Willemstad, and Zevenbergen. At that time the new municipality was called Zevenbergen. The name changed to Moerdijk on 1 April 1998.

Topography

''Dutch Topographic map of the municipality of Moerdijk, June 2015''

The village of Moerdijk

The village of Moerdijk is one of the smaller villages of the municipality. Population as of 2002 is 1,205. Moerdijk is however a well-known name in the Netherlands, because of the large Moerdijk industrial area, with a large power plant, and because of the well-known Moerdijk bridges across the Hollands Diep. This was the last bridge available for the retreat from the vital Scheldt Estuary of the rapidly collapsing German defences near Antwerp in World War II.
Moerdijk made headlines on 5 January 2011 because of a large fire at Chemie-Pack causing a large cloud of toxic smoke to blow over the surrounding area, mostly to the north of Moerdijk.
Above the Moerdijk is used as an expression in Belgium and the southern parts of the Netherlands to mean "in the Netherlands" or "in Holland".
Below the Moerdijk is also a Dutch expression for the Catholic provinces North Brabant and Limburg. This expression is used particularly around Mardi Gras in relation to the region's traditional carnival culture, which does not exist north of the major rivers.
Over de Moerdijk is used by either party to mean the other one.

Zevenbergen

Zevenbergen is the largest town of the municipality. It is located about 10 km northwest of Breda. It received city rights in 1427.
Zevenbergen has a train station with connections to Dordrecht and Roosendaal.

Transport

Close to Hollands Diep, the area is now used for industrial movements by water, with great inland access as well the access into the North Sea, transport company Van der Vlist have their own port located in the area, and many other transport companies have nearby offices.

Notable people