Vught, two churches expressing feudal rivalry

The location of Vught on the bank of the Dommel river is also expressed in the name of this town: vught/vocht means riparian land or wet land. The oldest settlement however wasn't located on the lowland along the river but on higher ground where near the hamlet of Vlierd (this name means: where the elder trees grow). The landscape was once characterised by alternating drier higher ground (sand ridges and so-called donken) and low-lying marshland and peat bogs. Vlierd and later Vught was located along an important thoroughfare north towards the Meuse that split here in a route going north towards Utrecht and a route going east toward Nijmegen via Cuijk.

After 1400 dykes are raised to drain the marshland and prevent the arable land from flooding. The foundation of the city of Bois-le-Duc ('s-Hertogenbosch) further north at the confluence of the Dommel and Aa rivers in 1184 had lead to increased seasonal floods as a direct result of filling in and straitening rivulets and raising the ground level in the floodplain here. Dykes were first constructed from the castle of Heymhuizen (now Maurick) along the left bank of the Dommel connecting higher ground across marshland. This in turn lead to more flooding further upstream, so in the 16th and 17th centuries the arable land along the Dommel and Run rivers was dyked-in at Haanwijk, Volmeer, Sint Michielsgestel and Zegenwerp.

The town of Vught has a peculiar layout with two large churches belonging to separate parishes. Directly east of the town two castles once stood on the Dommel; the Castle Maurick and at a distance of a mere 200 m Castle Old Herlaer. This situation is much like the pair of castles that once stood along the Dommel at the city of Eindhoven. Such a pair of castles on each side of river are indicative of competition between feudal overlords along a borderline formed by a river.  The Castle Old Herlaer (Oud Herlaer), together with the Castle Hanwick (Haanwijk), Castle New Herlaer (Nieuw Herlaar), Castles Ruwenberg and Castle Zegenwerp where a fief of the Bishopric of Liège. The Lord of the Manor of Herlaer would also found the town of Sint-Michielsgestel opposite the village of Theere after he had acquired the Manor of Gestel. In this new town a church was built dedicated to his patron saint St Michael.

The patronage of a church or chapel is often expressed in the choice of saint it is dedicated to. The first place of worship was a small chapel that was built around 700. The church of St Lambert built here later fell under the auspice of the Bishop of Liége. The patronage was transferred to the Tuetonic Order in the 14th century. This church stood alongside the old road across a sandy ridge linking De Vlierd and Het Reut. Around 950 a second chapel had been established on higher ground near the river by the Bishop of Cologne. Around 1028 a Market Field (basically a widened street) was laid out next to this Chapel of St Peter. This new settlement was granted the right to mint coins, hold markets (1028) and collect tolls (1050) both over land and over water. The chapel was replaced by a new church and later the Elisabeth Convent, a new Manor House and the Hospital were built near this market. This whole is basically a new town located south of the old village north of a small stream.

 

A pattern reconstruction shows how a new market place was added to an older settlement in a way similar to the Lind of Oisterwijk that was established next to East Tilburg. Incidentally the market was initially also called Lynd in Vught. The Taalstraat connected both churches and overtook the older Dorpsstraat (Village Street) as the main street of the town.Later this Taalstraat was extended north towards the Vughterpoort (Vught Gate) of Bois-le-Duc. The construction of the Halse Brug (Hall Bridge) also lead to a new shorter road (Oude Baan) linking the market and this river crossing further south. The new town is indicated in yellow.

The Twin Town of Vught should be understood as an effort by the Duke of Brabant to gain better control over his dominion by establishing privileged settlements that answered directly or indirectly to him. This is clear in the way the new castle was built behind the new market end new church. Thus Vught had to distinct centres: the Brabantian one around the Market Field and the Teutonic one around the old church where there was a convent, a Komtur (Zionsburg), a hermitage, a hostel, a moated manor (Muiserick) and a school. As the importance of this small town decreased with the rapid expansion of neighbouring Bois-le-Duc the patronage of the Church of St Peter was transferred in the 15th century to the Collegiate Church of St Catherine in  Eindhoven.