Veenhuizen is a village (around 800 inhabitants) that was in the municipality (or
gemeente)
NorgNorg is a small, very old village of the Noordenveld municipality in the province Drenthe, in the Netherlands. As of 1 January 2008, Norg had a population of 3737, in comparison to a population of 3840 on 1 January 2004....
before is was reorganized to be a part of a larger collection of municipalities including the lager village of
RodenRoden can mean:*Roden Downs, in Berkshire, England*Roden , a town in Drenthe, Netherlands*Roden, Bavaria, a town in the district of Main-Spessart in Bavaria in Germany*Roden, Shropshire, a village in England*The Earl of Roden...
to become the municipality of
NoordenveldNoordenveld is a municipality in the northeastern Netherlands.- Population centres :Altena, Alteveer, Amerika, Boerelaan, De Horst, De Pol, Een, Een-West, Foxwolde, Huis ter Heide, Langelo, Leutingewolde, Lieveren, Matsloot, Nietap, Nieuw-Roden, Norg, Norgervaart, Peest, Peize, Peizermade,...
(since 1998). The larger cities in the area are
Groningen||-| |-| |-| |-| |-| |-| |-| |-| |-| |}Groningen is the capital city of the province of Groningen in the Netherlands. With a population of around 188,000, it is by far the largest city in the north of the Netherlands...
and
AssenAssen is a municipality and a city in the north eastern Netherlands, capital of the province of Drenthe. It received city rights in 1809.Assen's main claim to fame is the TT Circuit Assen the motorcycle racing circuit, where on the last Saturday in June the Dutch TT is run.Assen has a railway...
(20 to 30 km) and
AmsterdamAmsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country...
and
BremenThe City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A port city along the river Weser, about south from its mouth on the North Sea, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area...
(
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
) (around 200 km). Veenhuizen has an elevation of about 7 metres.
What makes Veenhuizen special is that is started out in the early nineteenth century as a
reeducationReeducation may refer to:* a euphemism for Brainwashing, efforts aimed at instilling certain beliefs in people against their will* Reeducation through labor, also called laojiao, a form of penal detention in China; or the Soviet gulags for "re-education of class enemies" and reintegrating them...
colony for the poor and homeless from the large cities (like
AmsterdamAmsterdam is the capital and largest city of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country...
and
The HagueThe Hague is the third largest city in the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam, with a population of 485,818 and an area of approximately 100 km²...
) It was, together with a town in
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent , the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, the only colony within a country's own borders.
The history of Veenhuizen goes way back in to the late
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages is a period of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The period followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, and preceded the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period in a three-period division of history: Classical, Medieval, and Modern...
but only as an insignificant
hamletThe Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
alongside a little stream called the "Slokkert". This was situated a little to the north of the current village.
Change came when the general
Johannes van den BoschJohannes, Count van den Bosch was a Dutch Lieutenant General and politician.-Biography:Born at Herwijnen in the province of Gelderland, the Netherlands, van den Bosch arrived in Java in 1797 as a lieutenant, but was quickly promoted to colonel. He departed in 1810, because of differences with...
started the Maatschappij van Weldadigheid (which translates freely into Company for Benevolence) in the 1820s. The company bought 30 km² of land to found colonies which would house and provide work for the poor from the large cities in Holland's west.
The change is still evident in the way the village was set up. It looks, when seen through Dutch eyes, almost American as it is made up of roads in a grid pattern with blocks measuring 700 by 700 metres. The difference with the United Sates is that most of these blocks are still filled in with farmland on which the inmates used to work.
The (staff) houses are concentrated around the now two remaining prison complexes. A large number of which have educational texts in large sculptured sills on the front, about two stories high to educate the people working in and around them. The texts used to correspond with the intended inhabitant. The headmasters house said "knowledge is power" as the pharmacists house said "bitter and sweet".
The whole village is mentioned on the
Unesco World Heritage listCultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations...
.
Later in the 19th century the Maatschappij van Weldadigheid went broke and the whole complex/village was taken over by the Department of Justice for use as a
penal colonyA penal colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general populace by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory...
. This led to the building of the prison buildings which are still in use today (albeit modernized several times since).
Veenhuizen used to be closed off to everyone but the inmates and the staff and their families lived in housing (most now newly built in the 70s, 80s and 90s) provided by the department. The village was treated as private companies grounds which also meant that (ironically) the police had no jurisdiction there, much to the liking of the moped riding youth.
Since 1990 the village is freely accessible for all and even houses a tea-garden, a pub (for the very first time in its existence) and even houses the national museum for correctional facilities
http://www.gevangenismuseum.nl/ (link is in Dutch).
The isolated history also provided the area with outstanding natural beauty and wildlife and makes for excellent bike rides.
The village is, despite its size, known throughout the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in North-West Europe. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and water borders with...
. Even national celebrities have done time there for driving while under the influence of
alcoholIn chemistry, an alcohol is any organic compound in which a hydroxyl functional group is bound to a carbon atom, usually connected to other carbon or hydrogen atoms....
. It has even been honoured by its own rendition of
Johnny CashJohn R. "Johnny" Cash , born J. R. Cash, was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
's "San Quentin" song, in Dutch.
External links