Bijgebouwen, Lekdijk 58 a 1 Schalkwijk (Houten 26) (and others)

English translation

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Description

Cluster 61. Gateway Building (A) with Access Postern.

NEW HOLLANDIC WATER LINE

Introduction

GATEWAY BUILDING (A) WITH ACCESS POSTERN as a defensible and earth-covered entrance to Fort Honswijk. A gateway building is a structure whose purpose is to control the flow of persons (and goods) in and out of a given area. Among others, gateway buildings were found in medieval castles and towns (town gates), usually within their encirclement. Town gates of 17th-century and later towns were often situated in or even behind (earthed up) town walls to be better protected against enemy fire. A similar location and function were also possessed by the gateway buildings applied in 19th-century forts: primarily to defend them possibly (from inside) and secondarily for controlling access. Gateway buildings were among others erected at Fort Honswijk and Fort Vechten, but the latter were later converted into two guard houses. The gateway building of Fort Honswijk was built because the use of a bridge, as common to most forts in the New Hollandic Water Line, was not permitted due to the water-retaining function of the access road to the fort, which was in fact a branch-off from the Lekdijk. Both the access road and the main wall of the fort possessed and still possess this function as main water barrier. A postern is an enclosed or covered passage or sally port.

Description

Located in the inward-curving curtain on the western side of the fort, an earth-covered GATEWAY BUILDING (A) with an ACCESS POSTERN sprouting from its rear side. The structure dating from 1878 comprises one storey. The front façade is symmetrical, comprises three bays and consists of a heavy sandstone plinth with brick above. Centrally the entrance with sandstone, round-arched surround in blockwork, with double wooden doors. Above this the inscription: "Honswijk". To the left and right thereof similarly accented by arched, blockwork surrounds window openings with double metal shutters. Between these two broad brick pilasters and on the bevelled corners similar pilasters. The gateway building provides access to the steeply descending ACCESS POSTERN which emerges at Remise H. The postern possesses a brick vault and simple, later double wooden doors at the other end.

Valuation

The GATEWAY BUILDING (A) WITH ACCESS POSTERN of Fort Honswijk is of general importance because of:

* Cultural-historical values as part of the New Hollandic Water Line as designed by C.R.T. Kraijenhoff and realized in its initial phase from 1815 by him, Jan Blanken and Major-Engineer Willem Offerhaus and subsequently strengthened and improved by others over approximately 125 years.

* Architectural-historical values, in particular as an expression of built structures related to military-strategic engineering, based on: a. the system of inundation and access defence (19th century), b. the race against strengthening offensive capabilities (19th century).

This concerns a component from the period 1871-1886, namely a defensible and earth-covered entrance to a fort from 1878.

* Ensemble values as part of the New Hollandic Water Line. Also because of the functional and physical relationship with the other components of the complex.

* The component is rare because gateway buildings were infrequently applied in 19th-century forts and representative because it is one of the scarce surviving examples of this building type.

* The component is well preserved because main form, structural detailing and various components, including the access postern, have remained intact.