Meppel


Meppel is a municipality and a city in the northeast of the Netherlands, in the south-west of the province Drenthe.
Meppel is the smallest municipality in the province of Drenthe, with a total area of 58 km².
People born in Meppel are occasionally referred to as 'Meppeler Muggen'; this translates as mosquitos/gnats from Meppel. This is due to a traditional folk tale. The people of Meppel thought the church tower was on fire. After closer inspection it was only a swarm of mosquitos.

History

It developed in the 16th century as an inland harbour for peat transport and distribution. There used to be a lot of waterways in the town, but now only one remains. Meppel received city rights in 1644.

Geography

Meppel is located at in the south-west of the province of Drenthe in the east of the Netherlands.
The Meppelerdiep, the Drentsche Hoofdvaart and the Hoogeveense Vaart connect Meppel to Zwartsluis, Assen and Hoogeveen. To offload professional transport vessels the Omgelegde Hoogeveense Vaart was dug out south of the city. The Meppelerdiep is accessible for boats with a size of 2000 ton.
The streams Reest and Wold Aa run through the city. The Reest end in the Meppeler Diep.
The population centres in the municipality are:
Meppel is served by train connections with Zwolle to the south, which leads to the rest of the country, and Leeuwarden and Groningen to the north and north-east.
There are regular and frequent bus lines within Meppel and towards Zwolle, Hoogeveen and Assen. The bus station is situated in front of the classic railway station.
By car, the town is accessible via the A28 motorway towards Zwolle in the south and Groningen to the north-east, A32 motorway towards Leeuwarden in the north.

International relations

Meppel is twinned with:

Notable people

  • Jan Jansen Bleecker merchant and political figure, Mayor of Albany, New York
  • Arent Magnin a Dutch politician in the administration on the Dutch Gold Coast
  • Petrus Johannes Waardenburg a Dutch ophthalmologist and geneticist; Waardenburg syndrome is named after him
  • Ben Nijboer a Dutch physicist and academic in optics and solid-state physics
  • Louise Fresco a Dutch scientist and writer on globally sustainable food production
  • Catrien Santing a Dutch medievalist
  • Erik Kwakkel a Dutch scholar who specializes in medieval manuscripts, paleography, and codicology
  • Albert van der Haar is a Dutch former footballer with almost 500 club caps

    The Arts

  • Petrus Kiers a Dutch painter, graphic artist and photographer
  • Sir Joseph Joel Duveen an art dealer and benefactor of art galleries
  • Henry J. Duveen an art dealer
  • Eduard Frankfort a Dutch Jewish painter
  • Jan Mankes a Dutch painter, sometimes categorized as a symbolic realist
  • Jelle Taeke de Boer a Dutch art collector
  • Roelof Frankot a Dutch painter, a strong relation with the CoBrA movement

    Photo gallery