Maassluis; Groote Kerk

Jeroen de Jongh about Maassluis; Groote Kerk

Maassluis is a city and municipality in the Dutch province of South Holland. The municipality has an area of ​​10.12 km² (of which 1.63 km² water) and has 32,768 inhabitants, known as the Maassluizers. There are no other centers within the municipal boundaries. In the eighties, the slogan 'Maassluis, Eerste stad aan de Waterweg' was coined as a city promotion. However, this label is topographically incorrect: Maassluis is situated on the Scheur. Since 2010 the slogan is Experience Maassluis. The municipality is part of the partnership Metropolitan Region Rotterdam The Hague.

Maassluis originated around 1340, as a settlement near a lock in a seawall that was constructed between the North Sea and Rotterdam to prevent flooding. The settlement was called Maeslandsluys and was administratively part of Maesland. In 1489 the settlement was sacked. In the sixteenth century, Marnix van St. Aldegonde had a redoubt built. Even before its completion, the redoubt was captured by the Spaniards in 1573. Van Aldegonde was taken prisoner. A year later Maeslandsluys was plundered by mutinous Spanish troops.

On May 16, 1614 Maeslandsluys was granted independence by the States of Holland and continued as Maassluis. The secession had to do with the dissatisfaction in Maassluis about the attitude of the administration that was established in Maasland, among other things about the high costs that people had to pay and the little that came back for it. The redoubt was demolished in 1624 to mak