The Dutch Historical Polder route

The Dutch Historical Polder route introduces you to the water and defense works of the south side of the Haarlemmermeerpolder. You cycle past the"dryers\\\", the pumping stations and mills and the"defenders\\\" and forts. These two together provide a large piece of history in the Haarlemmermeer. The Haarlemmermeer is a Dutch reclaimed land and municipality of the same name in the south of the province of North Holland. In the centuries before its reclamation in the years 1849-1852, the Haarlemmermeer was an enormous expanse of water. Three pumping stations pumped the Haarlemmermeer dry between 1849 and 1852: pumping station De Leeghwater, pumping station De Cruquius, and pumping station De Lynden. You will encounter the first two pumping stations on this route, of which the Cruquius is probably the best known. A museum is also located in this pumping station. The Geniedijk Haarlemmermeer, over which part of the route runs, is a geniedijk that was constructed between 1888 and 1903 and was part of the Defense Line of Amsterdam, which is located approximately 15 to 20 kilometers around this city. In 1963 the military status of this defense structure was abolished. In 1996, the Defense Line of Amsterdam was placed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO. The dike is part of the Waterline and the defense line of Amsterdam, which was the most important defense system in the Netherlands until the Second World War. By flooding areas and strengthening important road junctions with forts, the aim was to stop the "enemy" before he could take Holland (the current Randstad). In those places where the advancing enemy could not be stopped by the water, he could be fired upon in these places. The Gemaal De Leeghwater is located in the Dutch village of Buitenkaag on the southern edge of the Haarlemmermeer, at the place where the Hoofdvaart and the Ringvaart meet. The pumping station borders the Kagerplassen. The pumping station is named after Jan Adriaanszoon Leeghwater, who in 1641 was one of the first to advocate the reclamation of the ever-growing Haarlemmermeer. The Leeghwater is the oldest of the three pumping stations. The De Leeghwater pumping station was completed in 1845. The first 'trial grinding' also took place in that year. The pumping station was actually put into use in 1848 and is still in use today. The Fort at Aalsmeer, also known as Fort Rijsenhout, is a fort in Haarlemmermeer near Aalsmeer. The fort is located on the (southern) spot where the Geniedijk meets the ring dike, here called Aalsmeerderdijk, which runs along the Ringvaart. As part of the Defense Line of Amsterdam, the fort had to guard the locks next to the fort, with which the southwestern half of Haarlemmermeer could be flooded in the event of a hostile attack. The Fort near Hoofddorp is a fort of the Defense Line of Amsterdam. It is located in a bend of the Geniedijk, west of the Hoofdvaart. Originally it was located south of Hoofddorp, now in the middle of it. The fort was built around 1903-1904. During the Second World War the fort was used by the Luftwaffe as a horse care station. After the war it functioned as an internment camp for political offenders for two years. Afterwards it was used as a warehouse by the Dutch air force for a while. Nowadays the fort is used by a local sports shooting club, as a shooting range. The Fort at Vijfhuizen is also a fort of the Defense Line of Amsterdam. It is located near Vijfhuizen on the western edge of the Haarlemmermeer between Haarlem and Hoofddorp. The fort is located on the edge of the old Haarlemmermeer. The grounds of the fort and the forecourt would remain dry. Because the area that would remain dry at the Fort at Vijfhuizen is quite wide, a double moat has been created. The fort has a beautifully restored Engineer's shed from 1897. This is the last existing metal Engineer's shed of the Defense Line of Amsterdam. The shed served for the storage of cannons that could be used elsewhere in the Defense Line. When the enemy attacked and the position had to be prepared, the Engineer shed had to be demolished. That is why the warehouse has been made demountable. The fort at Vijfhuizen was also the testing ground for the original planting. Partly for this reason the Military Tree Nursery was located here. The aim was to grow trees (and shrubs) for use on and near the forts. The Vijfhuizer Mill is a polder mill built in 1875. The Vijfhuizer drained the Vijfhuizer Polder and replaced a mill that burned down on December 31, 1859. It is a thatched octagonal mill of the ground sailor type with an old Dutch sail cross. A large family lived in the house dating from 1924, something that is difficult to imagine now. In 1938, an electrically powered auger was installed in the mill. Drainage using wind power remained possible, which turned out to be a good choice during the Second World War. The Vijfhuizer Mill can be visited when it is running. The Kleine Molen or De Hommel is a polder mill built in 1879 at Hommeldijk 20 in Haarlem. De Hommel drained the United Groote and Kleine polders. The mill is a thatched octagonal mill of the ground sailor type with an Old Dutch sail cross. It is equipped with an auger, with which the polder was drained until 1944. In that year, the polder was flooded by order of the German occupier. After the war, the Kleine Molen became the home for an electric pumping station. The mill was renovated in 1963/4, but on March 31, 1967 lightning struck and the mill burned out. The mill was restored in 1972 and 1991, with the charred wooden octagon largely preserved. The Kleine Molen can be visited when it is open. turns. De Cruquius pumping station dates from 1849 and is the largest steam engine in the world. The pumping station was never modernized and was decommissioned in 1933. It is among the Top 100 of Dutch national monuments. It is named after the Dutch hydraulic engineer Nicolaus Samuelis Cruquius, born as Nicolaas Kruik in 1678 in West-Vlieland. The impressive combination of technology and architecture makes De Cruquius a world-class industrial monument. The pumping station in turn gave the name Cruquius to the nearby village. After Gemaal De Cruquius you cycle along the Ringvaart back to Lisse. On this last part of the route you can clearly see how low the Haarlemmermeerpolder is and what the effect of the water could have been if it was flooded!