Bergen op Zoom (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌbɛrɣə(n) ɔp ˈsoːm] ; called Berrege [ˈbɛrəɣə] in the local dialect) is a city and municipality in southwestern Netherlands. It is located in the province of North Brabant, at the provincial border with Zeeland. In 2025, the municipality had a population of 70,216.
A ravelin is a triangular fortification or detached outwork, located in front of the innerworks of a fortress (the curtain walls and bastions). Originally called a demi-lune, after the lunette, the ravelin is placed outside a castle and opposite a fortification curtain wall.
The ravelin is the oldest and at the same time the most important outer work of the bastion fortification system. It originated from small forts that were supposed to cover the bridge that led across the moat to the city or fortress gate from a direct attack. From this original function, to protect the gate bridge, also comes its original Italian name "rivellino" (which means small bank work or with the German expression common for it: Brückenkopf – "bridge head"). Therefore, the ravelin was at first only a small work, which should only make the access to the bridge in front of the fortress gates more difficult. When it was realized in the 16th century that this would generally provide better protection for the courtine, ravelins were also built in front of other courtines and these were gradually enlarged. However, it was not until the German fortress builder Daniel Specklin (1536–1589) recognized the principal importance of ravelins (which he still called "ledige Wehr" or "revelin"). He demanded that they be made as large as possible so that they fully covered the courtine and the flanks of the bastions and could place a flanking fire in front of the bastion tops. In the following period, ravelins can be found in practically all fortresses built according to the bastion fortification system.
Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn (August 28, 1612 – October 3, 1653) was a Dutch scholar (his Latinised name was Marcus Zuerius Boxhornius). Born in Bergen op Zoom, he was professor at the University of Leiden. He discovered the similarity among Indo-European languages, and supposed the existence of a primitive common language which he called 'Scythian'. He included in his hypothesis Dutch, Greek, Latin, Persian, and German, later adding Slavic, Celtic and Baltic languages. He excluded languages such as Hebrew from his hypothesis. He died in Leiden.