Historic Cities · Netherlands
Saeftinghe through the ages
Saeftinghe or Saaftinge was a town in the southwest Netherlands, located in eastern Zeelandic Flanders, near Nieuw-Namen. It existed until 1584. It is now a swamp known as the Drowned Land of Saeftinghe and an official nature reserve area. The land is a crosspoint where the river Scheldt meets the salty waters of the North Sea in the estuary Western Scheldt.
Saeftinghe in 1570
The Rich Polder Town
Saeftinghe in 1570 is a prosperous polder community where fertile fields and busy quays meet the tidal Scheldt on the edge of the sea. This walk follows the dyke-line, the windmill and the village streets to the church tower, the peat moors and the barges, and pauses at a local place of legend where a captured mermaid is said to have cursed the land.
Low horizons, red-brown brick and pale thatch, and long straight drainage channels define Saeftinghe in 1570. The skyline is a compact ribbon of church tower and the crenellated Saeftingher Slot, set against reedbeds and the wide, tidal Western Scheldt. Earth and clay dykes capped with grass, wooden sluices and a scatter of timber farmhouses shape a humanised marshland of small scale, salt-tinted light and a wind that carries gulls and trade dust from the estuary.
The route: 10 streets, squares and views
Western Scheldt Approach → Saeftinghe Sea Dyke → Polder Windmill → Lower Polder Wheat Fields → Saeftingher Slot → Village Quay → Peat Moors → Church Tower of Saeftinghe → Mermaid's Dyke → Upper Dyke Lookout
Step inside, 5 interiors
Mill Floor and Gearing · Polder Farmhouse Kitchen · Great Hall of Saeftingher Slot · Parish Church Nave · Dyke-Warden's Watch Room
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Saeftinghe.
