Fort, vesting en -onderdelen, Vossegatsedijk 3

English translation

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Description

Cluster 40.

Introduction

FLANK BATTERY F2 in the main wall, as one of six similar components of the fort's close defence. Flank batteries are designed to cover the moat, protruding parts of the main wall of a fort or fortification and the terrain immediately in front of it, and consist of casemates or other gun emplacements positioned at an angle in the main wall. Their flanking fire meant that the main wall was difficult to approach. Flank batteries were especially common in the German fortification system in the second half of the 19th century. They typically had a facade and/or access on the scarp side (interior side) of the flanks of the main wall and were usually provided with an earth layer as cover. On the outside, there was a facade with gun loophole(s), largely concealed from view by the angled positioning. The concept of applying flank batteries in the form of casemates built into the main wall was still fairly new in the Netherlands around 1870.

Description

FLANK BATTERY F2 on the north-eastern side of the Fort at Rijnauwen, which together with five similar or comparable flank batteries flanked the north and south sides of the fort and the caponnière. The batteries, constructed of masonry in 1869-1871, which were largely covered by the earthworks of the outer wall, had a powder magazine and casemates, each armed with several gun emplacements.

Valuation

The FLANK BATTERY F2 is of general importance because of:

Cultural-historical values as part of the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie, 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 an interconnected system of inundation fields and associated inundation equipment and shooting fields. This system was supplemented with various types of built or constructed (defence) works dating from different periods that served to or contributed to the closure of terrain not to be inundated or other accesses.

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

This is one of six examples of mortared flank batteries located at the Fort at Rijnauwen, dating from 1869-1871.

* Ensemble value and situational values, as part of the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie. Also because of the functional and physical coherence with the other and in particular the five similar components of the complex and/or the counterparts.

* The component is representative (characteristic) because it is a clearly recognizable part of a fort realized in one concept and it represents the relatively new form of flanking fire from batteries positioned at an angle and covered in the main wall.

* The component is reasonably well preserved because it can still be clearly recognized in the field as a built element and because in terms of structure and physical appearance the main features of the condition in the 1880s of this building type are preserved in it.