Within the borders of the province of north Brabant there is a city called Woudrichem. Woerkum, as the local people called Woudrichem. Until the middle of the 19th century it was a city of Holland. The fortified city was dominated by the church with the tower. The local people have their own name for the tower they called it the "mosterpot" the official name is the Sint Martinuskerk. 

The history of this town is closely connected with salmon fishery. In the oldest part of the  town you can visit the fisherman museum. The right to fish in Woudrichem is only  for the inhabitants of Woudrichem and this fishing right is the oldest, still existing fishing right in the Netherlands. Woudrichem got the right from the hands of Diederik Loef van Horne who gave it to the citizens and their children on 3 June 1362. The residents of Woudrichem are allowed to lease the fishing right for as long as they want to have it, but for many centuries there have been discussions and even wars on what areas of fishing water are covered by this right

The interest of the fishers and the fishing water have been looked after for centuries now, by a special organization. Now, whoever wants to fish with nets in the fishing waters of Woerkum must be a member of the "Coöperatieve Visscherijvereniging De Hoop". This organization was raised in 1909 and today still hands out permissions to fish with nets. But if you aren't an inhabitant of Woudrichem you will not have a chance to get permission to fish. And... even women who are inhabitants of Woudrichem still don't get permission up to this day!!   

In 1993 and in 1995 the water of the Maas, Waal and the Merwede was high up against the wall of the fortress. Traditionally the entry gate of the fortress is closed with a case dam during high water. In the wall of the fortress are grooves and in those grooves the beams are put.  

The space between the beams is filled up with sand. In the fortress gate but also in the fortress walls, you can find stones that show how high the water was in time of a flood in other years

In the most important gate [the gevangenenpoort] you can even find a stone  gauging-rod with on it the level of the water during the floods of 1993 and 1995 and others. During the flood of 1995 it was clear that the fortress walls weren't as strong as people had thought they were when examining them as part of the "Deltawet Grote Rivieren" [the Deltalaw]. So the fortress walls and all the dikes around Woudrichem were fortified and this work is remembered with a black memory stone.

900: A Round that year Woudrichem is developed

1356: Woudrichem gets city rights and is then a real city