Vlissingen is a town (city) and a municipality in the Dutch
province of Zeeland, located on the north side of the estuary of the
Western Scheldt on the former island of Walcheren. The city of
Vlissingen has approximately 33,000 inhabitants. The municipality
has 44,132 inhabitants (August 1, 2020, source: CBS) and an area of
344.98 km², of which 310.84 km² is water.
The municipalities
of Vlissingen also include the towns of Oost-Souburg (10,500
inhabitants), West-Souburg (1000 inhabitants) and Ritthem (500
inhabitants); West-Souburg is considered a district of the town of
Vlissingen.
The municipalities of Middelburg and Vlissingen
together form a coherent urban area (sometimes referred to as "the
core city of Zeeland") with more than 93,000 inhabitants.
The
first mention of Vlissingen was in 1247.
At the beginning of the Eighty Years' War, the city
was in Spanish hands. Vlissingen was the second city (after Den
Briel) to liberate itself from the Spaniards on April 6, 1572.
Unlike Den Briel, Vlissingen was not liberated by the geuzen but by
its own inhabitants. In 1585, Vlissingen became British property:
Queen Elizabeth obtained it as collateral, along with Ostend,
Brielle and Fort Rammekens, in exchange for military and financial
aid in the fight against Spain. This in the context of the Treaty of
Nonsuch. In 1616 these areas were returned to the Republic of the
Seven United Netherlands. Before Napoleon incorporated the whole of
the Netherlands, Vlissingen was also in French hands for a while
under the Treaty of Fontainebleau. At that time, the city did not
belong to the Kingdom of Holland, as much of the rest of the
present-day Netherlands did, but became part of the district of
Eeklo in the Scheldt department.
In the 1930s, Mayor C.A. van
Woelderen to increase the city's economy on the basis of the three
pillars of tourism, port and industry. To stimulate tourism, an
airport had already been built in the north of Vlissingen in the
1920s. The harbors of the city were enlarged and Vlissingen was
promoted as a seaside resort. A bathing beach and a walking pier
were set up for this.
In the Second World War, the pier was
demolished again by order of the German occupiers, to prevent a
landing by the Allies. In October 1944 Vlissingen was flooded by the
Inundation of Walcheren. In this Allied plan they bombed several
dikes and flooded most of Walcheren. The German positions weakened
and the Allies gained better access to the Scheldt and the port of
Antwerp.
Shipping and shipbuilding have always been of great
importance to Vlissingen. Over the years, the De Schelde shipyard
has continued to grow and, as a result, part of the historic center
of Vlissingen has been demolished in favor of large factory halls.
When De Schelde left the city center after 120 years and settled in
the new Vlissingen-Oost port area, a large gap remained in the
middle of the city. This area has been bought by the municipality to
build a new housing estate called the Scheldekwartier. The credit
crisis turned this project into a major headache, which left the
municipality on the brink of financial collapse. Vlissingen is now
an Article 12 municipality and the municipality and the development
of the Scheldekwartier are scraping out of a valley.
There are several stories about the origin of the name Vlissingen.
For example, the story goes that Sint Willibrord arrived in
Vlissingen in the 7th century with a bottle. He shared the contents
of this bottle with beggars and tried to convert them. A miracle
happened, so the content of the bottle did not decrease. When the
bishop noticed that the beggars would not listen to his words, he
gave them the bottle and named the place Flessinghe.
Another
source states that the name comes from an old ferry house, to which
a bottle was attached by way of superstition. The monk Jacob van
Dreischor, who visited the place in 967, called the ferry house at
that time: the veer aan de flesse. Because many places at that time
were suffixed with -inge, the name later corrupted to Vles-In.