Fort, Fort Jutphaas bij 3

English translation

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Description

Cluster 50. Fortification layout and earthworks, including (remains of) gun emplacement positions, wet ditch with outer banks and (diversion and maintenance) roads.

NEW HOLLANDIC WATERLINE

Introduction

FORTIFICATION LAYOUT AND EARTHWORKS, INCLUDING (REMAINS OF) GUN EMPLACEMENT POSITIONS, WET DITCH WITH OUTER BANKS AND (DIVERSION AND MAINTENANCE) ROADS as basic components of the defensive work. Forts were usually constructed on the basis of previously placed earth structures, which served as a foundation and prevented subsidence in (a wet and soft) soil. In the construction of the forts, apart from this usually already tactically 'pre-formed' earth structure - which could itself already play a defensible role - a specific layout was also realised which was intended to increase defensive strength, ensure the safety of the garrison and facilitate internal and external transport and traffic. This resulted in, among other things, earth coverings for various buildings to make them less vulnerable to enemy fire, earthen ramparts that protected buildings and open areas and determined the contours, and paved paths and parade grounds. Forts were usually surrounded by one or more wet or dry ditches to hinder any approach to the fortification wall or fort grounds as long as possible. The forts were usually only accessible via one or more bridges or via a narrow strip of land. Where for hydrological or other reasons a permanent direct connection between inner and outer areas existed, it was constructed in such a way that it could not or only with the greatest difficulty be crossed. The use of bastions with half-moons and palisades was common in this regard. Along the outer side of the ditches there was often a road or path, which could be laid out both in the form of a covered way (glacis / envelope), as well as level with, or even above ground level. These roads or paths could have various functions, ranging from public road to maintenance path, and also from military covered way to exclusive access route to the fort. Outside the wet ditch there is moreover often a zone (since ancient times and still partly) marked as such with boundary posts over which the Ministry of War had authority, the Military Crown Land. The earthwork of the Fort at Jutphaas originated initially from two star-shaped, earthen redoubts, but these were subsequently reinforced with built components that were worked in under earthworks. The zone of Military Crown Land around the fort has remained limited here to the outer bank with the road around the fort, in which some works that are part of it, such as a bridge over the Plettenburgsche Wetering on the south-west side of the fort that is scarcely recognisable as such - because reinforced with concrete. Furthermore, a presumably no longer existing bridge on the east side was part of the crown land, as well as two narrow strips on the north-west side and the south-east side of the fort - in both cases watercourses with accompanying paths.

Description

FORTIFICATION LAYOUT AND EARTHWORKS, INCLUDING (REMAINS OF) GUN EMPLACEMENT POSITIONS, WET DITCH WITH OUTER BANKS AND (DIVERSION AND MAINTENANCE) ROADS of the Fort at Jutphaas. The fort, which dates from 1819-1820, consists essentially of a relatively elongated, virtually symmetrical, north-south oriented earthwork with rampart and various ground levels and with six pointed bastions. The north-eastern and south-eastern bastions, which are connected by a curtain in line with the Overeindseweg, are considerably more spacious than the northern, north-western, southern and south-western ones. The earthworks, in which emplacements are recognisable in several places, enclose the fort grounds or terreplein almost completely, while the guardhouse and also the other bomb-proof buildings (1846-1848 and 1871-1873) are covered with earth. The 15 to 30 metre wide ditch of the Fort at Jutphaas, which follows the contours of the fort in a gently curved form, is still virtually completely present; however, the separate, semi-circular ditch around the guardhouse no longer exists. The fort was built at the access of the Overeindseweg, with the result that this road was diverted southwards around the fort. This road served, like the path laid out on the north side, and also still largely present, as a maintenance path. The zone originally marked with boundary posts over which the Ministry of War had authority - the Military Crown Land - falls in principle within the bounds of the protection.

Valuation

FORTIFICATION LAYOUT AND EARTHWORKS, INCLUDING (REMAINS OF) GUN EMPLACEMENT POSITIONS, WET DITCH WITH OUTER BANKS AND (DIVERSION AND MAINTENANCE) ROADS of the Fort at Jutphaas is of general interest by virtue of:

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

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

The component is an example of an earthen layout with gun emplacements, earth covering for various functions, ditch, diversion road as boundary of (marked by means of boundary posts) military zone from the period 1819-1820 and modernised and extended in 1846-1848 and 1871-1873.

* Ensemble value and situational values because of its location within the system of the New Hollandic Waterline in general and the other complex components in particular.

* The component is representative because it shows different phases in the development of access defence on a large scale.

* The component is well preserved because it has shown the system of protection by means of earth covering in a virtually unchanged state since around 1875 and because the ground plan, the nearly complete ditch and the maintenance road have been preserved virtually unchanged.