Oostdijk / Beemsterringvaart | World heritage site Droogmakerij de Beemster
In 1607, the States of Holland and West Friesland grant permission to reclaim the Beemster. It promises to be a profitable project that could also contribute to the food supply of fast-growing Amsterdam.
A high and sturdy 38-kilometre-long dyke will be built around the lake and, in turn, a ring canal around it. Then the draining of the lake begins, which requires as many as 43 windmills. Engineer Jan Adriaenszoon Leeghwater is jointly responsible for the construction and placement of the mills. Windmill corridors are used: several windmills one after the other, each pumping the water from the lake a little higher into the ring canal.
In 1612, the lake falls dry and the layout of the polder can begin. Roads are constructed, ditches are dug and farmhouses are built. All this was done according to an orderly and strict geometric pattern. The Beemster owed its fame to this way of dividing and allocating land.
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A high and sturdy 38-kilometre-long dyke will be built around the lake and, in turn, a ring canal around it. Then the draining of the lake begins, which requires as many as 43 windmills. Engineer Jan Adriaenszoon Leeghwater is jointly responsible for the construction and placement of the mills. Windmill corridors are used: several windmills one after the other, each pumping the water from the lake a little higher into the ring canal.
In 1612, the lake falls dry and the layout of the polder can begin. Roads are constructed, ditches are dug and farmhouses are built. All this was done according to an orderly and strict geometric pattern. The Beemster owed its fame to this way of dividing and allocating land.
The Netherlands has been shaped by human intervention in nature. This begins as early as the sixth century BC with the construction of mounds and wierden for safe living. In the Middle Ages, land reclamation and embankment on an increasingly larger scale and the establishment of water boards followed. From the sixteenth century, water management was tackled on an even larger and more systematic scale with the reclamation of lakes and peat ponds. Today, the Beemster is on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. This reclamation area is a textbook example of how the Dutch 'made' large parts of their country themselves.