Fort Maasmond/Fort a/dn H v Holland

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, in Dutch. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

Introduction

COASTAL DEFENCE FORT, named 'Fort aan den Hoek van Holland' or 'Maasmond', principal component of the complex of the same name, built in 1881-1888 to defend the mouth of the Nieuwe Waterweg, which was completed in 1870. The fort consolidated the expansion of the fortification system along the coast, laid down in the Fortification Act of 1874. N.B. During the occupation, when a German bakery was among other things established in the fort, all iron armoured gun cupolas with cannons were demolished from the fort. The built-in steam boiler with steam engines was also removed at that time. In 1995 the old silhouette of the fort was restored by the reconstruction of the cupolas cast in sprayed concrete, manufactured by Aannemingsmaatschappij Gebroeders Koudijs B.V. from Oud-Beijerland.

Description

The armoured fort consists of an escarp (main building), surrounded by a largely dry moat seven metres wide and approximately seven metres deep and a contrescarp (outer ring building) counting twenty bays on the landward (north) side. The main building has a quadrangular plan, the corners of which are cut off on the north and south sides. The escarp of the fort has one storey above ground level and an intermediate storey - the so-called gangway storey - which provides access to the somewhat higher positioned gun gallery. In cupolas A and B there were originally, in addition to the gangway storey, also a projectile storey. This latter is only still present in cupola A. The covered hollow passages with saddle roofs connect the main building to the outer ring via a casemate and a staircase connected with it, at the cut-off north and south corners. The casemates with wings on either side of the hollow passage defended the flanks of the moat. For this purpose each of the wings is equipped with two closeable loopholes. On either side of the hollow passages the dry moat is interrupted by wet sections, the so-called diamond-shaped moats. These are connected to one another by means of a pipe through the hollow passage. The buildings - except the cupola substructures, which were sub-founded - were built on steel with a masoned substructure on which a concrete layer of brick concrete covered with sand was laid. The sub-founded, wholly masoned, round substructure of the cupolas in the main building stand 'freely' from the rest. The frames of the (arched) windows are of wood. The windows in the outer ring have iron armoured shutters that slide from inside. All facade walls are covered with a roll-moulding. Where the roll-mouldings meet at an angle, a dressed natural stone has been placed. Above the main entrance, in the roll-moulding, is a natural stone with the inscription '1883', the year in which the highest masoned point was reached. The main building contains on the landward side, and staggered along a corridor, ten residential quarters with masoned barrel vaults. The quarters are lit by arched two-part windows, which can only be opened inwards. On the corridor side, always on either side of the centrally located door, there is likewise an arched window. All the residential rooms in the fort have a chimney connection for a stove and adjustable ventilation/air pipe. In the main building are furthermore the former commander's room, with adjoining the telegraph/telephone room, and workshops for a carpenter, shoemaker and (weapon) smith. Around each cupola substructure are a powder magazine, a cartridge-filling place and a cartridge storage room; spaces for unfilled and filled projectiles. These spaces are protected on the water side and the northwest corner by a seven-metre-thick cavity wall filled with sand. In the outer ring are, on the moat side, the spaces for pharmacy, dressing room, sick room, access to the lift, two kitchens, storage rooms, residential quarters and the still completely intact bakery from the time of construction with its associated components. The fort, which originally defended the mouth of the Nieuwe Waterweg, had as main armament four cannons of 24 cm calibre, positioned in two adjacent armoured cupolas A and B and two cannons of 15 cm in the smaller and lower positioned cupola C in the southwest corner. Diagonally behind cupola B, with a view of the Nieuwe Waterweg, the mouth and the landward side, was an observation/command cupola positioned. The fort was equipped for nearby defence on the landward side with an armoured infantry/gun gallery. The gun gallery with two 45-degree angles, is positioned on the intermediate storey (the gangway storey) of cupola A and B and is divided by cross walls into twelve bays. The cross walls are of brick concrete and provided with semicircular barrel-vaulted passage openings. For the vault, two layers of rail iron were used. The cast iron supports (thirteen stations) for the armour plates of this gallery were supplied by the German company Gruson and are signed H. Gruson - Buckau - Fort Maasmond. The armour plates were probably supplied by a French blast furnace company. Each bay has in the centre a semicircular loophole for a machine gun, flanked by two square rifle loopholes and has a concrete firing platform for adjusting the sight, of which two are still present in the original state. In total the gun gallery has 34 rifle and 6 machine gun loopholes, arranged alternately in a firing arrangement of one machine gun loophole flanked by two rifle loopholes and one arrangement of four rifle loopholes. In the north and south casemate are in total four machine gun, four shrapenel cannon and fourteen rifle loopholes. The two hollow passages have in total sixteen rifle loopholes. The loopholes in the hollow passage and the casemate are closeable and served to defend the flanks of the moat. The glacis (roof) of the main building is built from outside to inside respectively of a slope, a broad flat surface, a slope, a gun gallery, a steep slope and cupolas A and B. For the rotation of cupolas A and B, steam engines were originally present; these were removed during the war. The glacis is accessible from inside via an iron climbing tube closeable with an armoured shutter, emerging on the glacis between cupolas A and B, close by here stands the flagpole. The roof is provided all around with air shafts. From outside the glacis was originally accessible via an iron drawbridge. This has meanwhile been replaced by a fixed bridge over the hollow passage in the north-east corner. Under this bridge a fixed, obstructing wrought iron railing has been placed on the hollow passage. The fort has its own drinking water supply (no longer in use but still working). The rainwater, falling on the main building and outer ring and subsequently filtered through the sand and gravel layer on the concrete covering, is discharged via drip pipes to the ten masoned rainwater cisterns under the buildings. An excess of rainwater is automatically discharged via a pipe system in the wet sections of the dry moat to the Nieuwe Waterweg. The drinking water could be pumped up with hand pumps (of which two are still present in the fort).

Valuation

Coastal defence fort on the Maasmond, principal component of the complex Fort aan den Hoek van Holland with associated components, as a well-preserved example of a late nineteenth-century coastal defence work of general importance because of the strategic, military and architectural historical value, the situational value in connection with the construction of the Nieuwe Waterweg and the political historical value in particular because of the last ministerial meeting held here on 13 May 1940, preceding the evacuation of the government to England.