The Hollands Diep (pre-1947 spelling: Hollandsch Diep) is a river in the Netherlands, and an estuary of the Rhine and Meuse rivers. Through the Scheldt–Rhine Canal it connects to the Scheldt river and Antwerp.
The Bergse Maas river and the Nieuwe Merwede river join near Lage Zwaluwe to form the Hollands Diep. The Dordtsche Kil connects to it near Moerdijk. Near Numansdorp it splits into the Haringvliet and the Volkerak.
Dordrecht (Dutch: [ˈdɔrdrɛxt] ), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, pronounced [dɔrt] ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after Rotterdam, The Hague, Leiden, and Zoetermeer, with a population of 123,000 (2025).
The municipality covers the entire Dordrecht Island, also often called Het Eiland van Dordt ("the Island of Dordt"), bordered by the rivers Oude Maas, Beneden Merwede, Nieuwe Merwede, Hollands Diep, and Dordtsche Kil. Dordrecht is the largest and most important city in the Drechtsteden and is also part of the Randstad, the main conurbation in the Netherlands.
The Nieuwe Merwede (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌniu.ə ˈmɛrʋeːdə]; "New Merwede") is a Dutch canal, mainly fed by the river Rhine, that was constructed in 1870 to form a branch in the Rhine–Meuse delta. It was dug along the general trajectories of a number of minor Biesbosch creeks to reduce the risk of flooding by diverting the water away from the Beneden Merwede, and to facilitate navigation and regulate river traffic in the increasingly silted-up delta.
It is one of several rivers called Merwede. The most upstream is the river Boven Merwede ("Upper Merwede"), itself the continuation of the Rhine-Waal river and, until 1904, the Meuse (now the closed-off Afgedamde Maas) as well. The Boven Merwede branches near the town of Hardinxveld-Giessendam into River Beneden Merwede ("Lower Merwede") to the northwest and the Nieuwe Merwede to the southwest. The Nieuwe Merwede joins River Bergse Maas near Lage Zwaluwe to form the Hollands Diep estuary, and separates the Island of Dordrecht from the Biesbosch National Park.
The Dordtse Kil (pre-1947 spelling: Dordtsche Kil) is a short river in South Holland in the Netherlands. The river is tidal and forms the connection between the Oude Maas river and the Hollands Diep. The river is for most part artificial in origin, since it has been a relatively small tidal creek until the 19th century.
North Brabant (Dutch: Noord-Brabant [ˌnoːrd ˈbraːbɑnt] ; Brabantian: Broabant [ˈbrɑːban]), also unofficially called Brabant or Dutch Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to the west, and Belgium's provinces of Antwerp and Limburg to the south. The northern border follows the Meuse westward to its mouth in the Hollands Diep strait, part of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta.
North Brabant had a population of about 2,626,000 as of January 2023. Major cities in North Brabant are Eindhoven (pop. 231,642), Tilburg (pop. 217,259), Breda (pop. 183,873), its provincial capital 's-Hertogenbosch (pop. 154,205), and Helmond (pop. 94,967). The province has the third-largest economy of all Dutch provinces, after North Holland and South Holland. The agricultural and horticultural sectors are traditionally strong, as is forestry.
The Merwede (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmɛrʋeːdə]; etymology uncertain, possibly derived from the Old Dutch merwe or merowe, a word meaning "wide water") is the name of several connected stretches of river in the Netherlands, between the cities of Woudrichem, Dordrecht and Papendrecht. The river is part of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and is mostly fed by the river Rhine.
At first, a disconnected branch of the Meuse joins the Waal at Woudrichem to form the Boven Merwede (Upper Merwede). A few kilometers downstream it splits into the Beneden Merwede (Lower Merwede) on the right and the Nieuwe Merwede (New Merwede) on the left. All these rivers are tidal. The Nieuwe Merwede joins the Bergse Maas near Lage Zwaluwe to form the Hollands Diep estuary, and separates the Island of Dordrecht from the Biesbosch National Park. The Beneden Merwede splits into the Noord River and Oude Maas near Papendrecht.
The Bergsche Maas (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈbɛr(ə)xsə ˈmaːs]; current spelling: Bergsche Maas) is a canal that was constructed in 1904 to be a branch of the river Maas (French: Meuse) in the Dutch province of North Brabant. The Maas splits near Heusden into the Afgedamde Maas and the Bergse Maas. The Afgedamde Maas flows north until its confluence with the river Waal (the main distributary of the river Rhine) to form the Merwede, while the Bergse Maas continues west as the main distributary of the Maas. Part of the Merwede (the Nieuwe Merwede) rejoins the Bergse Maas to form the Hollands Diep estuary.
Willemstad is a city in the Dutch province of North Brabant. It is located in the municipality of Moerdijk. Its population as of 2021 was 2,490.
Willemstad is a small historical town with well preserved fortifications. It lies on the Hollands Diep, close to the Haringvliet and Volkerak. It received city rights in 1585. The Reformed Church was built in 1607 as the first new Protestant church building in the Netherlands (see: the Reformation and its influence on church architecture).