Oisterwijk (pronunciation: Oosterwijk) is a village in North Brabant and the capital of the municipality of Oisterwijk. In 2020 the town of Oisterwijk had 19,955 inhabitants.
Oisterwijk is located between Tilburg and Boxtel. Nearby centers are Moergestel, Oirschot, Haaren, Berkel-Enschot, Udenhout.
In the municipality of Oisterwijk, Oisterwijks is spoken, a subdialect belonging to Central North Brabant, which in turn is part of the Brabant dialect. Oisterwijks differs considerably from Tilburgs, with which it is sometimes incorrectly identified.
The name Oisterwijk means a district to the east of East Tilburg, which is derived from the Latin vicus, which means market or trading place. East Tilburg meant the settlement around the church on Kerkplein in today's Oisterwijk; this explanation is therefore related to the fact that the historic core of Oisterwijk is an amalgamation of the village of East Tilburg around the church and the town of Oisterwijk around De Lind. Incidentally, West Tilburg meant today's Tilburg.
The oldest mention of the area around Oisterwijk is
in the Liber aureus from 1191, which contains the text of a deed
that is said to date from May 21, 709, but which no longer exists.
This states that Saint Willibrordus would have been given a domain
in Alphen and that the deed would have been drawn up in Tilburg
(actum publice Tilliburgis).
Later, two parishes were created
in this area: West Tilburg and East Tilburg. The latter was
dedicated to Saint Peter. The parish of Enschot was still located
between these two parishes, while chapels were founded in Berkel en
Helvoirt, and later also in Udenhout. The Lord of Tilburg had a moth
castle called Ter Borch, which probably lay at the confluence of the
Voorste Stroom and the Achterste Stroom. In the vicinity of this was
also the Watermill Ter Borch which already existed in 1300 and was
demolished in 1924.
Oisterwijk received market rights from
Duke Hendrik I of Brabant in 1212 and was founded on the territory
of the East Tilburg parish. This also explains the name
'Oisterwijk'. The foundation of Oisterwijk and four other freedoms
(oppida libera que de novo feceramus) took place in order to expand
the Duke's sphere of influence and resulted from an agreement with
Mr. van Breda. The local lords were gradually forced to recognize
the duke as their feudal lord. In 1230 the duke granted the new
village liberty rights. These included, among other things, market
duties and exemptions from certain taxes, but not the right to wall
the city and also no freedom of tolls on the Rhine. Gradually the
significance of the settlement of Oisterwijk increased at the
expense of that of the East Tilburg parish and 'Oisterwijk' became
the only designation used for the whole of the old village of East
Tilburg around the church and Oisterwijk around De Lind. The
settlement opted for the right of 's-Hertogenbosch and became the
capital of the Kwartier van Oisterwijk, one of the four quarters of
the Meierij van' s-Hertogenbosch. In 1231, the patronage of St.
Peter's Church passed into the hands of St. Geertrui Abbey in
Leuven. In 1259 there was first mention of an alderman's bank.
By the end of the 14th century, Oisterwijk already had its
current main structure, consisting of a broad, square-like street of
almost a kilometer long, called the Plaatse, which emerged from the
old market town that was granted city rights in 1212. Road junctions
lay on both sides. In the east were roads to Oirschot, Boxtel,
's-Hertogenbosch, Haaren and Heusden. From the west were roads to
Moergestel, Tilburg and Heukelom.
In the late Middle Ages and
the following centuries, the city was known for its cloth industry
and beer breweries and partly because of this occasionally suffered
from enemy attacks, including from the 16th-century Gelderland
general Maarten van Rossum. During the Eighty Years' War, Oisterwijk
was also frequently engaged in combat operations.
There was
already talk of a church in 1192 and 1214, and a pastor was
mentioned in 1230. The St. Peter's Church stood almost in the same
place as the current one. In the vicinity was a beguinage and a
nunnery called Catharinenberg. The original Catharinenberg was
founded around 1440 and the sisters followed the Third Rule of Saint
Francis. The sisters lived in Oisterwijk until 1731, after which
they moved to Baarle-Hertog. The Gothic church, which had twenty
altars and a high tower, was destroyed on June 11, 1587, during a
raid by State troops commanded by Philip of Hohenlohe-Neuenstein.
Restoration followed in the years 1608-1616, which was recalled by
an inscription bar. In 1648, however, the church passed into the
hands of the Reformed. A few decades later, the Catholics moved into
a barn church on the Schijf. In 1722 the parish Berkel-Udenhout
split from Oisterwijk and in 1851 Berkel and Udenhout both became
independent parishes.
Meanwhile, at the end of the 18th century, the Catholics got
their church back, which, however, was badly neglected. A Napoleon's
church was built for the Reformed in 1810. The Catholics demolished
the transept of their church in 1823 and in 1895 the church was
demolished and replaced with a new one which was consecrated in
1897. In the intervening years it was held in a wooden emergency
church. The beam with inscription eventually ended up in the
retirement home "Ter Perre". It took until 1928 before a second
parish was established in Oisterwijk. On May 27, 1998, a fierce fire
occurred in the tower of St. Peter's Church during repair work. The
spire collapsed and parts landed on the roof with a chandelier
crashing into the pews. The damage was repaired afterwards.
In 1844 Franciscan sisters founded a new monastery from the Nazareth
Monastery in Oirschot on the site of the former Catharinenberg. In
the 1930s, a monastery complex with schools and a chapel was built
on the current Schoolstraat. After the sisters left in the early
21st century, the various parts were used differently, including a
music school. The Jewish community was created after Jews came to
live in Oisterwijk in the early 18th century. A Jewish cemetery was
opened in 1748 and a synagogue was inaugurated in 1758. Initially,
the deceased from Tilburg were also buried here, but there they
founded their own municipality and the Oisterwijk municipality was
completely absorbed in it in 1908. Most of the Jews moved to this
neighboring town.
A railway station was built in 1865. The
economic history of Oisterwijk is told below.
In 2012
Oisterwijk celebrated that it was 800 years ago that they received
city rights. Various festivities took place.