Spakenburg - Shipyard
Bunschoten-Spakenburg is a medieval town first named in 1294 and received it's city rights by the Bishop of Utrecht in 1383. Because of these rights the citizens were allowed to build an earthen wall around the town. The fortifications didn't last long however because a part of the town was destroyed in 1427 in a war between two rival Bishops and the wall was never rebuilt. It was originally a very important fishing villiage since it was part of a wide, open valley of the river Eem. Their main catch was paling, which is still a favorite of the Dutch today.
A century after Bunschoten was first mentioned, the settlement of Spakenburg developed. Originally the two towns were separated by a river inlet but much has happened in their history to change the lay of the land. Because of the location on the coast of what was then the Zuiderzee (a shallow bay on the Northsea), many floods inundated the area which caused the towns to become isolated.
So dikes were built to hold back the sea and stay the floods, this also caused new land to be created behind the dikes, this land (polder in Dutch) was often below sealevel and needed drainage and pumps to remain dry even if the dikes held, a big disadvantage of the dikes was that it limited access to the sea.
In the early 1900's the prosperous fishing harbor boasted over 200 ships but the closing of the "Zuiderzee" after the floods 1916 and further reclaiming of land after that period brought an end to that. No commercial fishing is now done from this area but heritage wooden vessels are still being built and repaired here.
Spakenburg - Shipyard
Bunschoten-Spakenburg is a medieval town first named in 1294 and received it's city rights by the Bishop of Utrecht in 1383. Because of these rights the citizens were allowed to build an earthen wall around the town. The fortifications didn't last long however because a part of the town was destroyed in 1427 in a war between two rival Bishops and the wall was never rebuilt. It was originally a very important fishing villiage since it was part of a wide, open valley of the river Eem. Their main catch was paling, which is still a favorite of the Dutch today.
A century after Bunschoten was first mentioned, the settlement of Spakenburg developed. Originally the two towns were separated by a river inlet but much has happened in their history to change the lay of the land. Because of the location on the coast of what was then the Zuiderzee (a shallow bay on the Northsea), many floods inundated the area which caused the towns to become isolated.
So dikes were built to hold back the sea and stay the floods, this also caused new land to be created behind the dikes, this land (polder in Dutch) was often below sealevel and needed drainage and pumps to remain dry even if the dikes held, a big disadvantage of the dikes was that it limited access to the sea.
In the early 1900's the prosperous fishing harbor boasted over 200 ships but the closing of the "Zuiderzee" after the floods 1916 and further reclaiming of land after that period brought an end to that. No commercial fishing is now done from this area but heritage wooden vessels are still being built and repaired here.