Culemborg-Beesd-Leerdam-Culemborg

Take a tour of the area around Culembor. It was once a small trading town on the Meer river. It was located on the southern bank of the Lek river. In the fourteenth century, a city wall was built around the town to keep out riffraff and part of the old wall can still be seen. It is the oldest remaining piece of city wall in the Netherlands. When you hear the bell ringing at 9:55 PM, know that this is an age-old custom to indicate that city gates would close five minutes later. In the past, ringing the bell was a signal for many people who worked in the fields to go home, to eat a bowl of warm porridge. For this reason, the town is called Papklokkendam during carnival. Cities were often protected by the massive city walls, but the New Dutch Waterline also offered protection. The entire defense line The New Dutch Waterline stretches from Muiden to the Biesbosch and is 85 kilometers long. In places where the water could not be regulated, enormous defenses were built. Since 2005, the New Dutch Waterline has been designated as a National Landscape, four years later the entire line was given the status of National Monument. Since 2010, the defense line has been a candidate for the UNESCO World Heritage List. And rightly so, because the New Dutch Waterline is a beautiful nature reserve with forts, shelters for birds and protected animal species and water management feats that are visible and hidden in the landscape. Two of the beautiful forts on the Waterline can be viewed along this cycle route. Fort Asperen is a tower fort, a type of fort that was mainly built in the New Dutch Waterline between 1840 and 1860. The towers of this fort are made of heavy masonry and have a diameter of 33 meters. In the past, the fort could only be reached via a wooden drawbridge. During the mobilization of 1970 during the Franco-German war and during the Second World War, the Netherlands remained relatively untouched and the New Dutch Waterline did not have to be deployed. In 1940, on April 12, the fort was made ready for battle for the last time. Fort Asperen is now called Kunstfort Asperen: it is the first fort to have a cultural program and since'86, cultural events and exhibitions have been organized annually. The other fort that the route takes you to is the Werk aan het Spoel. In 1815, an inundation fan lock with an earthen defense structure was already constructed here. These were improved in 1879 and bombproof buildings were placed near the earthen structure. What is special is that the road on the dike ran straight through the fort. In wartime, this road was closed off and an alternative route along the fort moat had to be chosen. Strategically, the Werk aan het Spoel was necessary, but it was situated along the railway line from 's-Hertogenbosch to Utrecht in a dangerous position. Enemies could easily seek cover behind the railway.