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Nieuwkoop (The Netherlands)

Zuid-Holland province

Shipmate Flagchart : http://www.shipmate.nl/flags.htm
adopted 29 May 1973.

Nieuwkoop municipality
Nieuwkoop old flag
Nieuwkoop CoA

See also:

Nieuwkoop municipality

Number of inhabitants (1 Jan 2003): 11.021; area: 38,47 km². Settlements: Nieuwkoop (seat), Noorden, Woerdense Verlaat.
In 1617 the villages of Nieuwkoop and Noorden became one municipality. On 1 Jan 1989 the village of Woerdense Verlaat and a part of the municipality of Kamerik were joined to Nieuwkoop municipality.

Nieuwkoop is a municipality in Zuid-Holland province, where the three provinces of Zuid-Holland, Noord-Holland and Utrecht meet.
Its present flag is a banner of arms, with description:
red, with in the center a yellow broken wheel at half flaglength, the broken part towards the fly, with at the hoist two, and at the hoist one yellow St. Andrew's cross, of which the length of the arms is 1/6 of flagheight.
Adopted by municipal resolution on 29 May 1973.

The crosses have probably a similar origin as the crosses of Amsterdam, Amstelveen, etc. The broken wheel has been explained locally:
According to legend Nieuwkoop was founded by a group of gypsies, who incurred a broken cartwheel here and couldn't travel any further. The broken wheel is still the main feature of the CoA.
However it is more probably the wheel of Saint Catharine. <