The Peat Skipper

Adriaan van Bergen was the owner of the famous peat ship with which Prince Maurits was able to conquer Breda from the Spanish in 1590 during the Eighty Years' War. The ship, loaded with 75 soldiers under a false floor, departed on 2 March that year from a location outside Breda. In the night of 3 to 4 March, the soldiers left the ship and took the Castle of Breda. In 1904, a statue for the peat skipper was unveiled in his hometown of Leur. When a new rear wing was built at the town hall in 1925, a new square was created, the Stadserf. Here, in the middle of the square, a statue of the peat skipper Adriaan van Bergen was placed. It was made by sculptor Gerda Rueb and donated by Machinefabriek Breda, formerly Backer and Rueb.

De Wandelmaker