Anna Paulowna

The Anna Paulowna Polder is the last polder in the Netherlands built with private funds. The new polder initially fell under the municipality of Zijpe; it only became its own municipality on August 1, 1870. In 1990, the municipality also acquired the territory of Wieringerwaard and Waardpolder, and since then the municipality consists of more than just the Anna Paulowna Polder. Anna Paulowna is part of the cooperative region Noordkop, also known as Kop van Noord-Holland.

The polder is named after Queen Anna Paulowna, the wife of William II and mother of King William III. Anna Paulowna (Saint Petersburg, January 18, 1795 — The Hague, March 1, 1865) was Grand Duchess of Russia and belonged to the House of Romanov. As the wife of King William II, she was Queen of the Netherlands from 1840 to 1849.

The sandy soil of the West Polder, where before the arrival of artificial fertilizers (around 1890) only one cow could be kept per five hectares, proved to be extremely suitable for bulb cultivation in 1912. After 1920, a second wave of pioneer colonization began, which made Breezand the most densely populated part of the polder. The municipality of Anna Paulowna has now grown into the largest contiguous bulb-growing area in the world.

GuzCal