Wachtgebouw, Vossegatsedijk 3

English translation

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Description

Cluster 40.

Introduction

GUARD BUILDING 1, FORMERLY GATEHOUSE WITH POTERNE which formed a fortified entrance to the north side of the Fort at Rijnauwen and which functioned separately from the entrance to the redoubt. The Fort at Rijnauwen is executed with two separate guard buildings which are located respectively to the north and south of the redoubt, on the west side of the fort. Guard buildings are usually stone, and sometimes reinforced and thus defensible structures that served as access to a fortification or fort or were located at the access to it. Gatehouses can also be considered as typological continuations or variants of city gates and outer baileys. Poternes are covered and/or bombproof passages, for example through the main wall, which provide access to a fort or fortification or which connect components.

Description

GUARD BUILDING 1, which was created around 1870 by the modification of an earlier GATEHOUSE WITH POTERNE. The guard buildings/gatehouses nos. 1 and 2 (in relief in the facades) are located as entrances to the fort in the western main wall and form pendants of each other. Both have facades executed in brick and coupled pilasters along the top, as well as decoration in yellow stone. The guard buildings form reinforced entrances to two curved poternes which lead to the terreplein. The arched entrances were provided with double wooden doors, but these were later removed and modified.

Valuation

GUARD BUILDING 1, FORMERLY GATEHOUSE WITH POTERNE of the Fort at Rijnauwen 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 for 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 various types of built or constructed (defence) works from different periods that served to or contributed to the closure of non-inundatable terrain or other accesses.

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

This is an example of a gatehouse with poterne converted to a guard building from around 1870.

* Ensemble value and situational values, as part of the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie. Also because of the functional and physical coherence with the other components of the complex and in particular as a pendant to guard building 2.

* The building is representative (characteristic) because it still displays the physical features that gave rise to its construction at the time and it is relatively rare because not many such guard buildings on forts have been constructed.

* The building is fairly well preserved because in terms of structure and physical appearance the main features of the condition in the 1880s are preserved.