Editing Beveren (section)

==History==

===Roman origins===
In [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] times, the Beveren area was at the edge of the sea and heavily influenced by the tides.  The earliest inhabitants erected primitive dams, which were later reinforced and built higher by the religious communities that sprang up in the region.  The invasions of the [[Normans]] in the 9th century prompted the [[Flanders (county)|Counts of Flanders]] and their local [[vassal]]s to defend this land even more.  Among the local nobility were the lords of Beveren, whose territory was eventually ceded to [[Louis I of Flanders]] in 1334.  Beveren thus became the oldest political centre of the [[Waasland]] region &mdash; the northeastern part of the historical County of Flanders &mdash; basking for more than two centuries in the glory of Flanders and [[Duke of Burgundy|Burgundy]].

===1570 to the present===
[[Image:CortewalleZuid.JPG|thumb|left|[[Cortewalle Castle|Castle of Cortewalle]] residence of the Lord of Beveren, the [[Goubau family]].]]
In 1570, a catastrophic tide flooded the area.  For strategic reasons linked to the protection of [[Antwerp]], the local authorities decided to dismantle the remaining dams.  Five years later, the rights to the territory were sold.  The area closest to the [[Scheldt]] was bought by an Antwerp merchant, and the rest went to the Duke of [[Aarschot]].  This state of affairs lasted until the [[French Revolution]], when the territory was subdivided into the pre-merger communes.  From the 17th century on, the territory had slowly been taken back from the sea, until 1846, when the last parcel of land was dammed up.

Beveren was heavily impacted by the [[North Sea flood of 1953]], which breached the dykes, causing again heavy damage to hundreds of houses. In the 1960s and 1970s, the expansion of the [[port of Antwerp]] took place on [[Kallo]]'s territory. The village of [[Doel]] was reduced from the 900 residents of only 10 years ago to some 250 currently because of the expansion of the port.  Vast industrial settlements came in its wake, including a [[nuclear power plant]] in Doel, which allows Beveren to provide low municipal tax rates for its inhabitants.  The opening of the ''Liefkenshoek'' car tunnel under the Scheldt in 1991 further improved access to the left bank.  Despite all those developments, Beveren has managed to keep its green areas intact and still offers picturesque landscapes to visitors.