UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Netherlands

UNESCO's Description

Schokland was a peninsula that by the 15th century had become an island. Occupied and then abandoned as the sea encroached, it had to be evacuated in 1859. But following the draining of the Zuider Zee, it has, since the 1940s, formed part of the land reclaimed from the sea. Schokland has vestiges of human habitation going back to prehistoric times. It symbolizes the heroic, age-old struggle of the people of the Netherlands against the encroachment of the waters.

From the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (CC BY-SA IGO 3.0).

History

Schokland was an attractive settlement area in the Middle Ages when it was much larger. By the 19th century, it was under continuous threat of flooding due to the rise in sea level. By then the Schoklanders had retreated to the three most elevated parts: Emmeloord, Molenbuurt, and Middelbuurt. A major flood in 1825 brought massive destruction, and in 1859 the government decided to end permanent settlement on Schokland. The former municipality of Schokland was joined to Kampen on the mainland.

Today Schokland is a popular archeological site and host to the Museum Schokland. Schokland was the first UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Netherlands.

Key Facts

Facts from Wikidata Q140869527 (CC0).

Visiting Schokland

Noordoostpolder (literally "northeast polder") is a municipality in the province Flevoland, Netherlands. The whole area consists of reclaimed land in the north of Flevoland. Most travelers will be heading for Schokland, a former abandoned island that has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The main settlement in the municipality is Emmeloord, with about 25.000 inhabitants.

Besides the confirmed listing of Schokland, the Noordoostpolder itself is also nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site [1].

Travel notes adapted from Wikivoyage: Noordoostpolder (CC BY-SA 4.0).

UNESCO's Description

The Dutch Water Defence Lines represents a defence system extending over 200 km along the edge of the administrative and economic heartland of Holland. It is comprised of the New Dutch Waterline and the Defence Line of Amsterdam. Built between 1815 and 1940, the system consists of a network of forts, dikes, sluices, pumping stations, canals and inundation polders, working in concert to protect the Netherlands by applying the principle of temporary flooding of the land. It has been developed thanks to the special knowledge of hydraulic engineering for defence purposes held and applied by the people of the Netherlands since the 16th century. Each of the polders along the line of fortifications has its own inundation facilities.

From the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (CC BY-SA IGO 3.0).

Key Facts

Facts from Wikidata Q64590253 (CC0).

UNESCO's Description

The outstanding contribution made by the people of the Netherlands to the technology of handling water is admirably demonstrated by the installations in the Kinderdijk-Elshout area. Construction of hydraulic works for the drainage of land for agriculture and settlement began in the Middle Ages and have continued uninterruptedly to the present day. The site illustrates all the typical features associated with this technology – dykes, reservoirs, pumping stations, administrative buildings and a series of beautifully preserved windmills.

From the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (CC BY-SA IGO 3.0).

History

Kinderdijk lies in the Alblasserwaard, at the confluence of the Lek and Noord rivers. In Alblasserwaard, problems with water became more and more apparent in the 13th century. Large canals, called "weteringen", were dug to get rid of the excess water in the polders. However, the drained soil started setting, while the level of the river rose due to the river's sand deposits. Most of the current mills were built in 1738 and 1740 (see below).

After a few centuries, an additional way to keep the polders dry was required.

Key Facts

Facts from Wikidata Q12012965 (CC0).

UNESCO's Description

The Wouda Pumping Station at Lemmer in the province of Friesland opened in 1920. It is the largest steam-pumping station ever built and is still in operation. It represents the high point of the contribution made by Netherlands engineers and architects in protecting their people and land against the natural forces of water.

From the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (CC BY-SA IGO 3.0).

History

The station was named after ir. D.F. Wouda, the chief engineer of the Provincial Water Authority of Friesland. He designed the building in a traditional style with influences of rationalism. During the construction, a lightning storm struck the newly built (but not yet protected) chimney, necessitating its complete reconstruction.

A special canal, the "Stroomkanaal", was dug to feed the station, designed to handle the large volume of water.

Key Facts

Facts from Wikidata Q1121835 (CC0).

UNESCO's Description

The Beemster Polder, dating from the early 17th century, is is an exceptional example of reclaimed land in the Netherlands. It has preserved intact its well-ordered landscape of fields, roads, canals, dykes and settlements, laid out in accordance with classical and Renaissance planning principles.

From the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (CC BY-SA IGO 3.0).

History

Around 800 AD the area of the modern municipality of Beemster was covered in peat. The name "Beemster" was derived from "Bamestra", the name of a small river in the area. In the period 1150–1250 peat-digging and storm floods enlarged that small river into an inland sea, a lake connected with the Zuiderzee. Around 1605 private investors started to drain the Beemster lake. In 1610, this was almost complete, but the lake re-filled because of a breach in the Zuiderzee dikes. It was decided to make the ring-dike a meter high above the surrounding country. In 1612 the polder was dry and the land was divided among the investors. In the earlier days of the polder, farmers occupied its lands for growing the crops necessary for long sea journeys by the VOC to the East Indies.

Key Facts

Facts from Wikidata Q9900 (CC0).

UNESCO's Description

The Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht was commissioned by Ms Truus Schröder-Schräder, designed by the architect Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, and built in 1924. This small family house, with its interior, the flexible spatial arrangement, and the visual and formal qualities, was a manifesto of the ideals of the De Stijl group of artists and architects in the Netherlands in the 1920s, and has since been considered one of the icons of the Modern Movement in architecture.

From the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (CC BY-SA IGO 3.0).

Key Facts

Facts from Wikidata Q914231 (CC0).

UNESCO's Description

The historic urban ensemble of the canal district of Amsterdam was a project for a new ‘port city’ built at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries. It comprises a network of canals to the west and south of the historic old town and the medieval port that encircled the old town and was accompanied by the repositioning inland of the city’s fortified boundaries, the Singelgracht. This was a long-term programme that involved extending the city by draining the swampland, using a system of canals in concentric arcs and filling in the intermediate spaces. These spaces allowed the development of a homogeneous urban ensemble including gabled houses and numerous monuments. This urban extension was the largest and most homogeneous of its time. It was a model of large-scale town planning, and served as a reference throughout the world until the 19th century.

From the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (CC BY-SA IGO 3.0).

History

Until the end of the 16th century, the city of Amsterdam encompassed the area inside the Singel and what is now Kloveniersburgwal. After the Alteration and change in management, the city expanded explosively. This led to Amsterdam's expansion in four stages between 1585 and 1665. In 1613, during the Twelve Years' Truce, reclamation of Herengracht, Keizersgracht, and Prinsengracht began.

After the Peace of Westphalia, Amsterdam created new space for investment and new plans were developed to expand the city. From about 1660, the canals were extended to the Amstel; these extensions bear the names: Nieuwe Herengracht, Nieuwe Keizersgracht and Nieuwe Prinsengracht. With this expansion, the city formed its iconic crescent shape.

Key Facts

Facts from Wikidata Q478707 (CC0).

Visiting Grachtengordel

The Canal District (Dutch: Grachtengordel) is the famous 17th-century district surrounding the Binnenstad of Amsterdam. The whole district is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its unique cultural and historical value, and its property values are among the highest in the country.

This article also deals with the Leidseplein and the Rembrandtplein, the two prime nightlife spots of the city. The Weteringschans is also included.

Travel notes adapted from Wikivoyage: Amsterdam/Canal District (CC BY-SA 4.0).

UNESCO's Description

Van Nellefabriek was designed and built in the 1920s on the banks of a canal in the Spaanse Polder industrial zone north-west of Rotterdam. The site is one of the icons of 20th-century industrial architecture, comprising a complex of factories, with façades consisting essentially of steel and glass, making large-scale use of the curtain wall principle. It was conceived as an ‘ideal factory’, open to the outside world, whose interior working spaces evolved according to need, and in which daylight was used to provide pleasant working conditions. It embodies the new kind of factory that became a symbol of the modernist and functionalist culture of the inter-war period and bears witness to the long commercial and industrial history of the Netherlands in the field of importation and processing of food products from tropical countries, and their industrial processing for marketing in Europe.

From the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (CC BY-SA IGO 3.0).

History

Built between 1925 and 1931, the buildings were designed by architect Leendert van der Vlugt from the Brinkman & Van der Vlugt office in cooperation with civil engineer J.G. Wiebenga, at that time a specialist for constructions in reinforced concrete. It is an example of Nieuwe Bouwen, modernist architecture in the Netherlands. It was commissioned by the co-owner of the Van Nelle company, Cees van der Leeuw, on behalf of the owners. Van der Leeuw and both company directors, Matthijs de Bruyn and Bertus Sonneveld, were so impressed by the skills of Van der Vlugt that they commissioned him to design and build private houses for themselves in Rotterdam and nearby Schiedam between 1928 and 1932.

Key Facts

Facts from Wikidata Q2328849 (CC0).

UNESCO's Description

Built between 1774 and 1781, this property is a moving mechanical scale model of the solar system as it was known at the time. Conceived and built by an ordinary citizen – the wool manufacturer Eise Eisinga – the model is built into the ceiling and south wall of the former living room/bedroom of its creator. Powered by one single pendulum clock, it provides a realistic image of the positions of the Sun, the Moon, the Earth and five other planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn). The planets revolve around the Sun in real time and the distance between the planets is at scale. The model fills the entire ceiling of the room, making it one of the earliest predecessors of the ceiling and projection planetariums of the 20th and 21st centuries.

From the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (CC BY-SA IGO 3.0).

History

The orrery was built from 1774 to 1781 by Eise Eisinga, a wool carder and amateur astronomer.

Eise Eisinga’s mechanical planetarium is built into the timber roof of the living room ceiling of his historic canal house. William I, Prince of Orange and the first King of the Netherlands, was so impressed with the planetarium, he purchased the house and it became a royal planetarium.

The museum consists of the planetarium room, a screening room where documentaries are shown, and special exhibits based on modern astronomy. Other parts on permanent display are Eisinga’s former wool combing establishments and a collection of historical astronomical instruments.

Key Facts

Facts from Wikidata Q601223 (CC0).