Steenbergse Haven

The Steenbergse Haven, officially the Steenbergsche Kaai, is the harbour of Steenbergen, linked to the open water by the Steenbergse Vliet. It reaches almost to the Kaaistraat, the main street of the old centre, so boats moor only a few minutes' walk from the shops and squares. The oldest part of the harbour dates from the fourteenth century, and for centuries the town's trade depended on it.

The section that connects the harbour to the Vliet is younger and was once part of the fortifications of Steenbergen, which became a fortress town in the seventeenth century. At the mouth of the harbour, Fort Henricus, built in 1626 and 1627, guarded the harbour and the sluice, and the water could be used to flood the polders around the town in case of attack. Steenbergen was never taken again after 1623, and the harbour was central to its defence until the fortress was abolished in 1827.

In the industrial age the harbour served the sugar beet trade. Until the 1970s, cargo ships carried beets to the local sugar factory, which later moved to nearby Dinteloord. Four nineteenth-century storage barns at the start of the harbour still recall that period. Until 2011 the harbour was also the terminal of a ferry to Oude-Tonge on Goeree-Overflakkee, run with the pont Sunbear, a vessel built in 1928; the service ended when the Sunbear could not fit through a narrow temporary passage used while the A4 aqueduct was being built.

Today the harbour is a marina. Its middle section is lined with houses that have their own or shared jetties, and the marina proper has about 160 berths, followed by the old town harbour with around 30 places for visiting boats. Larger sailing boats can still reach Steenbergen, because the A4 motorway passes beneath the Vliet through an aqueduct instead of blocking it with a bridge.

The harbour suits anyone walking the centre of Steenbergen, boat owners sailing the waters of West Brabant and Zeeland, and visitors who want to understand how a small inland town grew rich on water and defence. A walk along the quay makes a natural link between the Kaaistraat, the Witte Kerk and the Sint-Gummaruskerk, and a longer walk or ride along the Vliet leads to Fort Henricus.