Fort, vesting en -onderdelen, Vossegatsedijk 5

English translation

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Description

Cluster 40.

Introduction

BOMBPROOF REDOUBT of the Fort at Rijnauwen as a rare building type within the system of the New Holland Waterline. A redoubt is a work situated within a fortification or fort that was capable of being defended independently and that, after the fall of the main rampart, could potentially serve as the last defended fortification. Characteristic features were all-round defendability and limited accessibility of a redoubt. Heavy masonry and possibly also an earth covering as protection against projectile impacts, as well as provisions for positioning and using heavy defensive weapons, were essential. On a larger scale, the term also occurs in the sense of a territory to be defended as a last resort, but at the Fort at Rijnauwen it expressly concerns the building that could potentially be defended as a last resort.

Description

BOMBPROOF REDOUBT, originally entirely surrounded by a moat - which was largely filled in later - pentagonal in form, with on each corner point an extension fitted as a gun casemate. The redoubt, built in the years 1869-1871, is for the most part executed with one storey, but centrally there lies a structure built up to a considerably higher level, which is largely concealed from view by heavy earth covering. Here are located remises and gun emplacements. The western façade of the redoubt has ornamentation with rusticated brick pilasters, an arched entrance gateway and above it a pediment with sculptural work, including military attributes and a metal plaque. Predominantly arched façade openings for artillery and as windows, with yellow brick decoration. Central poterne, containing a stair vestibule with cast-iron staircase with pillars and balustrade in neogothic style. The building was designed and fitted out (accommodation spaces, kitchen, toilets ('poepdozen' still present), storage spaces) for prolonged isolated occupation. Most of the spaces are situated on the exterior side of the work; part directly beyond the entrance left and right of the poterne. As protection, on the front of the redoubt there still lies a part of the former moat, with beyond it a roughly oval earth glacis, intersected by the (main) moat, with counterscarp, which lies partly within and partly outside the main rampart.

Evaluation

The BOMBPROOF REDOUBT of the Fort at Rijnauwen is of general importance because of:

* Cultural-historical values as part of the New Holland Waterline as designed by C.R.T. Kraijenhoff and initially realized from 1815 by him, Jan Blanken and major-engineer Willem Offerhaus and subsequently strengthened and improved by others over approximately 125 years.

* Military-historical values as part of a continuous military defence line between the former Zuiderzee and the Biesbosch. This consisted mainly of a coherent system of inundation fields and associated inundation means and of fields of fire. This system was supplemented with diverse types of built or constructed (defence) works from different periods that served to or contributed to the closure of non-inundable terrains or other accesses.

* Architectural-historical values, in particular as an expression of military-strategic building practice, which was based - on the system of inundation and access defence (19th century) - and on the race with increasingly strengthened offensive weapons (19th century).

This concerns a component from the period 1869-1871, namely a pentagonal, bombproof redoubt as part of a fort.

* Ensemble value and situational values as part of the New Holland Waterline. Also because of the functional and physical coherence with the other components of the complex.

* The component is rare because it is one of the few recognizable redoubts in the New Holland Waterline and it is furthermore representative of the development of this building type because it was provided with a protective glacis with counterscarp for military-tactical reasons.

* The component is well preserved because numerous characteristic elements in exterior and interior have been retained.