Kortgene Netherlands
Protestantse Kerk in Nederland (Reformed)
The Kortgene church took a new name, Nicolaaskerk, after the 2008 merger of the Netherlands Reformed Church, the Reformed Church in the Netherlands and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The name was chosen because there had once been a Nicolaaskapel on the island. Kortgene was first mentioned as a parish in 1247 and the church built in the 1400s. After the floods of 1530 and 1532 only the tower remained. North Beveland was completely flooded and it was 66 years before diking began. Kortgene was under water for 150 years. The current tower was built in 1681, surrounding the original tower; the tower walls are now more than one-meter thick. Flooding in 1808 and again in 1953 has brought water 3.5 meters deep into the church.