Saturday, September 30, 2006

More Forts (8)

And now my second post for today with pics from the fortified city of Naarden, also part of the Dutch Waterline (Hollandse Waterlinie). It's a well preserved fortified town, one of the best in Europe and mostly intact. We went to the Netherlands Fortress Museum (Het Nederlands Vestingmuseum), located on a huge part of the city walls. You could wander through the tunnels, some exhibitions and around the walls. From the walls you had some nice views. There were also some demonstrations of an old cannon that was shot by some soldiers dressed in historical costumes. We also joined a trip on a small boat around the double moats around the town, which was very nice. We shot quite some pictures as you can see.

The first one is again a copied image from Google Earth. From above you can see the typical shape of the town with it's double moats and arrowshaped defensepoints.

The second pic is a detail from the so called Spanish House in the town of Naarden. The image on the front of the house refers to an event that took place during the Eighty Years' war between Holland and Spain. After capturing the city Spanish troops massacred around 400 citizens in this house and continued killing another 400 in the streets. This was one of the reasons the Dutch decided that the fortifications of the city should be improved.

Hopefully the pics will give you a bit of an impression. Both the city of Naarden and the Fortress Museum are recommended. It was definitely a worthwhile visit.

2 comments:

Julie said...

Very nice! I love the moats.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Naarden is very beautiful. I enjoy the fact of living there, just outside the 'Vesting' (the fortified city). You should come and see it on a sunny day, not when it's rainy like on the pictures ;-)

Oh, you should check my site www.derkstenvers.nl :)