Veere

Veere had about fifteen hundred inhabitants for most of the last two centuries and buildings that would suit a town ten times the size, because in 1541 it was granted the staple for Scottish wool - all Scottish wool entering the Low Countries had to pass through this harbour - and the trade made it rich for a hundred and fifty years. The Grote Kerk was built for that period: an enormous late Gothic church, never finished, later used as a barracks and a hospital, standing far out of scale with everything around it. The Schotse Huizen, two merchant houses on the quay, are a museum of the trade. The town hall of 1474 has a carillon and statues of the lords of Veere on the front. When Scotland's trade moved and the harbour closed the town stopped entirely, and what is there is the seventeenth century unaltered.

History

The name means "ferry": Wolfert I van Borselen set up a ferry here in 1281 and built Sandenburg castle on one of his dikes, and Veere received city rights in 1355. It was the staple port for Scotland from 1541 to 1799, known there as Campvere, and in the 17th and 18th centuries it had about 750 houses within its walls, against about 300 in 2013 (Wikipedia, Veere).

What's there

• The Scottish wool staple - the monopoly of 1541 that briefly made the town rich.
• An oversized Gothic church - never finished, out of all scale with the town.
• The Schotse Huizen - two quayside merchant houses, now the museum of the trade.
• A town hall of 1474 - with a carillon and the lords of Veere on the facade.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Before you go

It is very small and busy with sailors and day visitors in summer. The church keeps seasonal hours. Parking is outside the centre. Off season most of it closes.

Nearby

Middelburg is south; the Veerse Meer and Oosterschelde barrier are around.

Key facts