St. Felix's Flood of 1530
On Saturday, November 5, 1530, a major flood occurred that caused a lot of damage in Zeeland. The flood disaster was called the St. Felix Flood, after the Italian priest and martyr Felix of Terracina, and was later nicknamed ‘quade saterdach’ (bad Saturday). All eighteen villages in South Beveland, North Beveland and East Watering were flooded.
More than 100,000 people died. Zuid-Beveland could no longer be reclaimed from the sea and became known as the Drowned Land of Zuid-Beveland. Reimerswaal, the third city of Zeeland at that time, was largely wiped off the map by the flood and the disaster never recovered. On November 2, 1532, another major flood took place in Zeeland, during which most of the repair work was destroyed.
