Uden - Misplaced Pages

This article is about the Dutch town. For people with this surname, see Uden (surname). For the district in Yemen, see Al Udayn District.

Town and former municipality in North Brabant, Netherlands

Uden
Town and former municipality
Top left: Church of St. Peter, top right: Former town hall Bottom left: Bedaf Dunes, bottom right: Volkel Air Base
FlagCoat of arms
UdenLocation in the province of North Brabant in the NetherlandsShow map of North BrabantUdenUden (Netherlands)Show map of Netherlands
Coordinates: 51°39′N 5°37′E / 51.650°N 5.617°E / 51.650; 5.617
Country	Netherlands
Province	North Brabant
Municipality	Maashorst
Area
• Town	36.57 km (14.12 sq mi)
Elevation	16 m (52 ft)
Population
• Town	36,805
• Density	1,000/km (2,600/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postcode	5400–5406
Area code	0413
Website	www.uden.nl

Uden (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈydə(n)] ) is a town and former municipality in the province of North Brabant, in the Netherlands. Since 2022 it has been part of the new municipality of Maashorst.

History

Uden was first recorded around 1190 as "Uthen". However, earlier settlements have been found in the areas of modern-day Moleneind, Vorstenburg and Bitswijk and evidence of Ice Age settlements has been found near the hamlet of Slabroek. From 1324 Uden was ruled by the Valkenburg house and became a part of the Land van Ravenstein [nl]. After 1397 it became a part of the German duchy of Cleves.

Uden was hardly affected by the Eighty Years' War and gained religious freedom in 1631. A result of this was the establishment in the municipality of the Crosiers, who fled from Protestant Dutch oppression in 's-Hertogenbosch in 1638. After the peace of Munster in 1648, Uden remained outside the Dutch republic and was a haven of religious tolerance, and Catholics from the nearby towns of Veghel, Nistelrode and Erp were able to build churches at the municipality's boundaries. The period of 1648–1795 saw an increase in prosperity due to the weekly markets, however, the town was almost destroyed by a fire in 1746. The Dutch folk-hero Kobus van der Schlossen was locally active at this time.

In 1795, Uden was taken by French troops and incorporated into the Dutch republic and has been a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands since 1810. After that time Uden's wealth diminished, mainly due to competition from the neighbouring Brabant towns, resulting in immigration to the Midwestern United States.

In 1848 The Dominican Catholic missionary Father Theodore J. van den Broek led a group of Dutch Catholics from Uden to Little Chute, Wisconsin, beginning a pattern of immigration to northeast Wisconsin that would last until the early twentieth century. That region of Wisconsin remains largely populated by descendants of Dutch Catholic immigrants from the Uden area. The Midwest was selected for its fairly similar landscape, which allowed the East Dutch immigrants, who were primarily farmers, to continue the same agricultural practices in the United States.

On 12 June 1840, a meteorite weighing approximately 720 grams fell into a field just outside Uden. It narrowly missed a group of laborers digging for peat nearby.

In 1855 the village of Volkel founded its own parish.

Uden began to specialise in the growth of cherries from 1860 onwards. In 1886, the old Petrus-church was demolished by fire and replaced by a new larger one.

During World War I (in which the Netherlands stayed neutral) North Brabant had many Belgian refugees. A refugee camp was erected at Vluchtoord in Uden, which housed several thousand Flemish refugees until 1918.

In the 1920s people started to cultivate the extensive heathlands in the eastern part of the municipality, called "De Peel". In 1922 a new village was built, called Terraveen and later renamed Odiliapeel.

After Uden was struck by a devastating cyclone in 1925, it was visited by Wilhelmina, queen of the Netherlands.

Since the 1950s Uden has become a regional centre of development, providing much needed economic growth. Due to its growth, very little is left of the old town's character.

Population centres

Places of interest

Brigitinesse abbey of Mary's Refuge
Church of Saint Peter's Chair
Chapel of the Crosiers
Mill of Jettens
Monastery of the Crosiers
Monastery of the Ursulines
Volkel Air Base
World War II cemetery

Notable people

Theodorus Verhoeven (1907–1990), missionary and archaeologist
Gerrit Braks (1933–2017), politician and agronomist
Theodore J. van den Broek, Dominican Catholic Missionary who led a wave of Dutch emigration to the American Midwest, primarily Wisconsin.
Gerrit van Dijk (1938–2012), animator, filmmaker, actor, and painter
Cilia van Dijk (1941–2023)), film producer
Addy van den Krommenacker (born 1950), fashion designer
Sultan Günal-Gezer (born 1961), politician, municipal councillor and alderman of Uden
Martin van Drunen (born 1966), death metal vocalist
Nikkie de Jager (born 1994), makeup artist and beauty vlogger

Sport

Theo Willems (1891–1960), archer, team gold medallist at the 1920 Summer Olympics
Wilma van den Berg (born 1947), sprinter, competed at the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics (which she left in the middle, in sympathy with the Israelis after the Munich Massacre)
Earnie Stewart (born 1969), American retired soccer player
Laura de Vaan (born 1980), Paralympian who competes in handcycle events
Cheryl Maas (born 1984), snowboarder, competed at three Winter Olympics
Maud van der Meer (born 1992)m swimmer, competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics

International relations

Uden is twinned with

Lippstadt, Germany

Gallery

Uden-City Hall
Uden-Urban Art-Penthouses
Uden-Zuid-Groen op zuid-cycle path
Groene hond
Uden-Zuid-Riviertje

References

^ "Kerncijfers wijken en buurten 2021". Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 17 April 2022.
"Postcodetool for 5401EJ". Actueel Hoogtebestand Nederland (in Dutch). Het Waterschapshuis. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
Humphrys, Julian (June 2010). "BBC History magazine". BBC World Histories. Bristol Magazines Ltd. ISSN 1469-8552.
IMDb Database retrieved 17 March 2020
IMDb Database retrieved 17 March 2020
Bekende Buren. "Nikkie de Jager ofwel NikkieTutorials koopt voor prikkie vet landhuis in het Brabantse Uden. Zie foto's". Bekende Buren (in Dutch). Retrieved 9 August 2020.