Bulletin KNOB

‘Batavische constantie’

2022-09-20T10:40:56+01:00

Based on archival research, this article describes the actions taken by the city government to put Amsterdam into a state of defence during 1672, the so-called Disaster Year. Particular attention is paid to the spatial consequences of these measures. In the spring of 1672, the Dutch Republic was attacked by an alliance between France, England, Cologne and Münster. The French army’s advance was eventually halted on the border of the province of Holland by dint of flooding the polders. In 1673, the tide of the war turned in the Republic’s favour, and hostilities ceased in 1674.

In 1659, Amsterdam had embarked on a series of major urban expansion works between the Leidsegracht canal and the IJ inlet. On 10 June 1672, all city works were halted except those on the fortifications. Priority was given to the restoration of the city wall, which had been weakened by subsidence. Outside the wall, a free field of fire was created, and measures were taken to defend the unfortified IJ shore. The city militia was also reorganized.

From June 1672, a semi-circle of low-lying polders around Amsterdam were flooded by opening sluices and breaching dykes. This was done step by step, in a form of dynamic water management that was constantly adapted to the changing circumstances in order to maximize the defensive potential and to minimize the damage. Waterways were blocked off and defended by armed ships. Six fortifications were built on the higher access roads in the immediate vicinity of the city, often close to one of the inundation openings. These were permanently manned. The city government also arranged for the construction of outposts further away, such as in Uithoorn, which were crucial to maintaining the flooding operations. With the river Vecht acting as the first line of defence – the ‘outer wall’ of Amsterdam as it were – Muiden, Weesp, the Hinderdam and Nieuwersluis were also reinforced with fortifications.

After the recapture of Naarden in 1673, the first steps were taken to return to normality and in 1674-1675 all temporary fortifications were demolished. All defensive structures disappeared from the landscape around Amsterdam. From this point of view, the spatial consequences seem to have been short-lived. However, the 1672 defence concept served as a model for all later defence lines around Amsterdam, the last one being the Stelling van Amsterdam, or Amsterdam Defence Line, in which the capital city functioned as a ‘national redoubt’. In this respect the spatial consequences of the Disaster Year cannot be underestimated.

Stedenpatronen rondom de Noordzee van de dertiende tot en met de eenentwintigste eeuw

2022-09-20T10:48:08+01:00

Contemporary urbanization patterns around the North Sea can only be understood by looking at their long-term development and studying how these patterns arose and evolved over the centuries. If we look no further back than the Industrial Revolution, we get a distorted picture. The fact is that urbanization patterns were for the most part already established before that period, as can be clearly seen in the composite map showing all the cities and all reference years.

Major port cities like Hamburg, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp emerged during the late Middle Ages. Many other cities of importance today also date back to that period. The Industrial Revolution was decisive for only two groups of cities: those in the English Midlands and in Germany’s Ruhr area.

The maps reflecting the situation in 1300 and 2015 reveal that the type of landscape had a huge impact on the urbanization patterns. Landscape provides continuity. In reaction to dramatic changes wrought by political and economic processes, the areas around the North Sea behaved like communicating vessels: the cities in the Southern Netherlands contracted, those in the Northern Netherlands expanded, Holland declined, England prospered.

A succession of major economic and political processes is crucial to our understanding of the position, function and significance of today’s key North Sea cities. The foundations of urban patterns around the North Sea were established in the period before 1500. It is noteworthy that for centuries the epicentre of major port cities lay in the politically fragmented areas along the eastern shore of the North Sea here powerful and enterprising townsmen ensured an intensive exchange of goods.

In the decades before and after 1600, the far-reaching political changes that occurred during the Dutch Revolt resulted in a shift in prosperity from the southern to the northern provinces, which subsequently experienced the Golden Age. While the southern provinces were constrained by their Spanish rulers, in the newly formed Republic where wealthy citizens were in charge, the cities of Holland flourished as transhipment and trading centres.

During the eighteenth century, there were more dramatic shifts: the centre of gravity moved to the other side of the North Sea, to England, where the character of the economy was completely transformed by the Industrial Revolution and the main port cities were now part of a kingdom that evolved into the British Empire in which both government and entrepreneurs played an important role.

Ever since industrialization took hold in northern France, Belgium and the Ruhr in the early nineteenth century, the North Sea region has been characterized by several economic epicentres that have managed to survive further far-reaching economic changes in the twentieth century. A consolidation of the pattern of cities around the North Sea occurred, seemingly due to the fact that, since the birth of the welfare state and the European Union, national governments have concentrated on the development of the economy, the population and the cities.

De aanleg van regenbakken in vroegmodern Deventer

2022-09-20T10:57:25+01:00

In recent years, many old cisterns for the collection of rainwater have been discovered in Dutch cities, in particular in Amsterdam. Such rainwater cisterns were for centuries an important source of fresh water. Most date from the second half of the sixteenth century onwards. They were especially prevalent in the western provinces, where the ground and surface water were mostly unpotable due to salinization and pollution. However, rainwater cisterns are also known to have existed in the eastern parts of the country. Yet very little is known about the architectural history of these cisterns in the Netherlands, especially for the period prior to the seventeenth century. While there are archaeological reports detailing specific aspects of their construction, the historical literature focuses on the use of rainwater cisterns by households and industry. There is a general lack of written sources describing the construction of cisterns prior to the seventeenth century.

This article highlights one specific historical source that has not been fully studied, namely the accounts left by the stewards of the former ecclesiastical houses in the city of Deventer. After the city became part of the Dutch Republic in 1591, the ecclesiastical houses were confiscated by the city and extensively refurbished. This included the construction of rainwater cisterns in around 1600. The accounts of these works contain valuable notes regarding the construction process and maintenance of cisterns, the use of specific materials and the hiring of specialist workmen.

The findings from these notes, as presented in this article, can be used to complement recent archaeological findings and contemporary architectural descriptions, thus providing insights for further research. The notes confirm, for example, that these rainwater cisterns were constructed underground by the same specialist, according to a specific design, using similar materials, such as bricks known as ‘klinkaerts’, and trass to create waterproof mortar. The construction of rainwater cisterns was sometimes accompanied by roof renovations designed to enhance the rainwater collection, as illustrated by an example. Ultimately, the article aims to show the relevance of such historical sources to furthering our knowledge of the construction history of rainwater cisterns in the Netherlands, in particular in the rather underexamined eastern parts of the country. Future research could aim to synthesize such historical sources with archaeological findings in order to arrive at a more comprehensive view of rainwater cisterns and their history in both the eastern and western Netherlands.

Eduard Cuypers, architect met een eigen koers

2022-09-20T11:01:30+01:00

Bespreking van een boek van Constant van Nispen

Architectenbureau Baanders

2022-09-20T11:31:13+01:00

Bespreking van een boek van R.-J. Baanders en A. Baanders-Buisman

Architect Jan Sterenberg en het wonen in de jaren ’70

2022-09-20T11:37:08+01:00

Bespreking van een boek van Michiel Kruidenier