The Vecht: a deceptive landscape

The lovely landscape of the Vecht has been part of a significant military obstacle for three centuries: the Dutch Waterline. Waterlines are created by flooding polders during wartime. The ideal water level is knee-deep: too deep to wade through and too shallow to navigate. In places where the land cannot be flooded, forts are located.

The Old Dutch Waterline begins at Muiderslot and runs past Slot Loevestein in North Brabant. This line protects wealthy Holland in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. During the French invasion in 1672, the Disaster Year, the Waterline saves the Dutch Republic from destruction.

From 1815 onwards – by then the Netherlands has become a kingdom – the New Dutch Waterline is developed, which also includes the city of Utrecht. Like its predecessor, this 85-kilometer long line must protect the affluent west. The Waterline is put on standby in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War, in 1914 during World War I, and in 1939-1940 on the eve of World War II, but it has never been fully flooded. After 1945, the military usefulness of waterlines disappears. There has never been an actual battle over the most expensive line the Netherlands has ever constructed. However, a German espionage report from 1908 refers to the Waterline as invincible. Did this help spare the Netherlands from the horrors of World War I? If so, then the Waterline was an excellent investment.

Visit Gooi & Vecht