Pieterzijl

Pieterzijl is a small village in the municipality of Westerkwartier in the Dutch province of Groningen. It is located on the Zijldiep in the west of the municipality. Pieterzijl has 170 inhabitants. In the early 15th century, the Ruigewaard was dike-constructed. In 1440, a sluice was built by monks from the Jerusalem monastery in Gerkesklooster, which served as a discharge sluice for the Zijldiep, also dug by them, a canalized connection in the Lauwers, whose old course, however, still runs around the village; the 'Old Lauwers', which runs along the hamlet of De Leegte. The monks named the sluice after Saint Peter. According to old documents, the sluice was built "an die wedde by Lambertshuse." It was probably a outpost of Gerkesklooster and is mentioned in 15th-century documents under the names 'Lambertssül', but mostly as 'Peterssül'. Gradually, a small village emerged around the sluice, which ecclesiastically belonged to Visvliet. In 1476, the sluice was completed at the more northern Munnekezijl, making the sluice redundant and was subsequently replaced by a bridge.

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