De Meern
| De Meern | |
|---|---|
| Neighbourhood of Utrecht | |
 "Marekerk", Protestant Church | |
.svg.png) | |
 De Meern in the municipality of Utrecht. | |
| Coordinates: 52°4′41″N 5°1′41″E / 52.07806°N 5.02806°ECoordinates: 52°4′41″N 5°1′41″E / 52.07806°N 5.02806°E | |
| Country | Netherlands |
| Province | Utrecht |
| Municipality | Utrecht |
| Elevation | +2 m (7 ft) |
| Highest elevation | +4 m (13 ft) |
| Lowest elevation | -1 m (−3 ft) |
| Population (01-01-2017) | |
| • Total | 21,316 |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Postal code | 3453,3454 |
| Dialing code | 030 |
| Website | www.utrecht.nl |
De Meern is a village in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is part of the municipality of Utrecht, and lies 6 km west of the middle of the city. Before 2001 the villages De Meern, Vleuten and Haarzuilens formed a municipality called Vleuten-De Meern. On the 1st of January 2001 this municipality was incorporated in the city (and municipality) of Utrecht. Since 1999 the number of inhabitants of De Meern has increased from about 10,000 to 21,000.
History
De Meern lies in the region of the disappeared river Oude Rijn (Old Rhine). Not far from the centre of De Meern during the Roman times an encampment (castellum) was built.
The Rhine was the Northern Border of the Roman Empire, and there were several Castella across the borderline. In De Meern, not only a complete Castellum has been found, but also several ships, roads, pottery and currency have been found. Most of these items (especially the big items) have been put back into the ground for perfect preservation, since the riverclay prevents them from rotting (it hardly lets oxygen through). Nowadays there is a museum in De Meern, on the site of the former 'castellum', where a complete Roman ship, the "De Meern 1", is preserved.
A village De Meern did not yet exist in the Roman times. In the 11th century there came farmers to the new 'polders' on the west of Utrecht and in the 13th century a dike called De Maerne was built. The little village at the beginning of this dike got the same name as the dike: De Maerne / De Meern.
Nowadays, De Meern is part of the agglomeration of Utrecht that has about 600,000 inhabitants in 2017, of which about 340,000 are in the municipality of Utrecht.
References