Moerkapelle is a village in the Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 province of South Holland

South Holland

South Holland is a province situated on the North Sea in the western part of the Netherlands. The provincial capital is The Hague and its largest city is Rotterdam.South Holland is one of the most densely populated and industrialised areas in the world...

. It is located about 6 km east of the city of Zoetermeer

Zoetermeer

Zoetermeer is a city in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of 37.06 km² . A small village until the late 1960s, it had 6,392 inhabitants in 1950...

, in the municipality of Zevenhuizen-Moerkapelle

Zevenhuizen-Moerkapelle

Zevenhuizen-Moerkapelle is a former municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland.The municipality was formed on January 1, 1991, through the merger of Moerkapelle and Zevenhuizen...

.

Moerkapelle was a separate municipality between 1817 and 1991, when it merged with Zevenhuizen

Zevenhuizen (Zevenhuizen-Moerkapelle)

Zevenhuizen is a village in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is located about 12 km northeast of the city of Rotterdam.Zevenhuizen was a separate municipality until 1991, when it merged with Moerkapelle to form the new municipality of Moerhuizen...

, to create a new municipality originally called "Moerhuizen". In 1992, it changed its name to Zevenhuizen-Moerkapelle.

Its name is derived from the combination of moeras (swamp) and kapel (chapel).

History

The hamlet Op Moer formed circa 1400. Around 1560 the first reference was made to the existence of a chapel, which served as a school and farmhouse after the completion of the village church in 1667. After the formation of the polder "Wildeveenen" in the 17th century, agricultural activity began and led to a population increase in Moerkapelle.