Nederland - Zeeland, Hedwigepolder

Hedwigepolder, or officially Hertogin Hedwige Polder. The name refers to Hedwige de Ligne, Duchess of Arenberg, wife of Engelbert IX Duke of Arenberg. The streets in the polder bear the names of the Duke and Duchess and their three children.

Hedwigepolder is located on the border between the Netherlands and Belgium, just south of the harbours of Antwerp. The area became a polder already before the Eighty Years' War. During this war, in 1584, Dutch soldiers inundated for strategic reasons the area. In the 17th century diking restarted and in 1907 the Hedwigepolder was the last territory, which was reclaimed from the sea in the eastern corner of the Dutch province of Zeeland.

Although there was (and is) a lot of protest the Hedwigepolder, an area of fertile farmland, soon will be returned to the sea, being part of an agreement between Belgium and the Netherlands to compensate for land, lost through the deepening of the River Scheldt, a waterway connecting the port of Antwerp to the North Sea. It becomes (again) part of the so called ‘Verdronken Land van Saeftinghe’ (The Drowned Land of Saeftinghe).

Picture: the poplar lined Engelbertstraat.

More info ‘Verdronken Land van Saeftinghe’: saeftinghe.eu/en