Just an hour and a half drive from Amsterdam’s historic canals and distinctive waterside townhouses, Zeeland, a coastal province in southwestern Netherlands, offers a glimpse into the regional mythology that travelers might miss.
As early as the second and third centuries B.C., when the Roman Empire controlled the area, people worshipped a goddess called Nehalennia. Often depicted in stone altars and votives with a basket of apples, nautical symbols, and a wolf-like creature at her feet, she was venerated in the Lowlands for providing safe passage through the North Sea.
Although time and water buried her legacy for hundreds of years, later generations rediscovered Nehalennia temples and artifacts in the 17th century and the 1970s. This has led to a resurgence of interest in the pagan goddess. Plus, in a country where nearly one third of the land lies underwater, she’s becoming emblematic of climate change and rising seas.
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A modern reconstruction of Nehalennia’s temple in Colijnsplaat, Zeeland attracts modern-day worshippers and tourists. Travelers can take a river cruise ship that bears her name on a trip around Europe’s largest harbor in Rotterdam. She was also the inspiration for a goddess and queen in the popular Netflix series The Witcher and the Japanese anime and manga Sailor Moon.
From new museum exhibits to temples, here’s how travelers can discover a goddess almost lost to time.
Unclear origins
In 1645, a storm swept away the dunes around Domburg, Zeeland, unearthing 28 inscriptions in stone that mentioned the name Nehalennia. Since then, hundreds of altars, several statues, and two temples have been found dedicated to Nehalennia around the region. Archaeologists have been using these findings to explore her mysterious origins
“The Netherlands in the Roman period [was] this transitional area between the Germanic and Celtic language area,” says Peter-Alexander Kerkhof, a research fellow at Leiden University and Ghent University. “The meaning of Nehalennia is very recognizable from a Celtic context in the sense that it contains the word halen, a British Celtic word that means the sea. So Nehalennia would literally mean ‘she who is at the sea, or near the sea.’”
Not all historians agree on Nehalennia’s Celtic origin story, but all believe she is a water deity. Jasper de Bruin, an archaeologist and the curator of the “Netherlands in Roman Times” exhibit at the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, says that most of the votive stones found in Zeeland were offered by merchants who wanted to thank the goddess for a safe passage at sea to England. The stones and other artifacts connected to Nehalennia are in the museum’s permanent exhibition.
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Because of her connection with water—the element that has played a major role in the Dutch country’s history—Nehalennia was arguably considered the most important goddess of the Netherlands.
However, the historian Annine van der Meer, who has written several books about Nehalennia, points out that the goddess could have been more than “just” a protector of seafarers. “Nehalennia is known as a goddess of the sea, but the symbols on her altars show that she is a universal goddess of birth, death, and rebirth,” she says.
On Nehalennia’s trail
To spot glimpses of the goddess, travelers can venture off the 382-mile Dutch Coastal Path—which crosses provinces Friesland, Zeeland, South Holland, North Holland, and Groningen.
In the small village of Colijnsplaat, they’ll spot a 2005 replica of the original temple built sometime between A.D. 150 and 250. “A pagan temple would have been unthinkable 30 years ago. Because there was no one who could have accepted Nehalennia, but [the locals] did it. They became proud of their own goddess,” says de Bruin.
Live reenactments of Roman-era life and ceremonies honoring Nehalennia take place at the open-air museum and archaeological theme park, Archeon, in Alphen aan den Rijn, South Holland.
There is also a renewed interest in redefining in Nehalennia’s narrative from protector of seamen to 21st-century “hydrofeminist.”
In 2022 the Dutch scientist Marte Stoorvogel partnered with Berlin-based art studio Nonhuman Nonsense to create a temporary exhibition called “Mud & Flood: The Return of Nehalennia,” which can be viewed at the MU Hybrid Art House in Eindhoven until April 16. The exhibit aims to help visitors understand why the Netherlands’ transitional areas are essential and why humans should once again respect water due to the climate crisis.
The Dutch are changing their approach to water management, from fighting it to living with it. Examples of this new thinking include the creation of floating houses in Amsterdam’s IJburg district and giving rivers more space to flow freely instead of regulating them with the Ruimte voor de Rivier (Room for the River) initiative.
“A lot of people are preoccupied with Nehalennia,” says de Bruin. “It’s a past that is not like a static object in a museum.”
