Fort, vesting en -onderdelen, Waaldijk 29

English translation

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Description

Cluster 73.

NEW HOLLAND WATER LINE

Introduction

FORT LAYOUT AND EARTHWORKS, WET MOAT WITH OUTER BANKS, GLACIS AND PART OF (DIVERSION) ROAD AND WITH (DEMARCATED BY BOUNDARY STONES) MILITARY CROWN LAND as basic components of a concentrated defensive work near a river access.

Forts were usually constructed on the basis of previously placed earth bodies, which served as a foundation and were to prevent subsidence in (a wet and soft) soil. In the construction of the forts, besides this usually tactically 'pre-shaped' earth body - which could itself already fulfil a defensive 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. In this way, among other things, earth coverings for various structures were created to make them less vulnerable to enemy fire, earth ramparts that protected buildings and open areas and that determined the contours, as well as paved paths and parade grounds. Forts were usually surrounded by one or more wet or dry moats to prevent any approach to the fortification or fort grounds until the last moment. The forts were usually only accessible via one or more bridges or via a narrow strip of land. Where a permanent direct connection between the interior and exterior existed for water management or other reasons, it was designed so that it could not or could only be crossed with the greatest difficulty. Use of so-called zigzag barriers, monks (especially at fortifications) and/or barriers was then customary. Along the outer side of the moats there was usually a road or path with a glacis. Such a road or path could be laid both in the form of a covered way, 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 road to the fort. Outside the moat there is often a zone (from time immemorial and still in part) marked with boundary stones as such, the so-called Military Crown Land, over which the Ministry of War had authority.

The layout of the Fort at Vuren differs from the general picture in that it is composed of two originally separately constructed defensive works. The public road over the northern Waal dike was placed on the outer rampart on the south side during the modernisation of the Fort at Vuren. Furthermore, the complex included some water works and was intended for the defence of a steam pumping station located in the immediate vicinity. The moat of the Fort at Vuren was connected via a discharge lock/check lock to the west of the work with the Waal and by means of two dam locks, on the (north)east side, also with a pair of inundation channels. To the east of the fort, a steam pumping station was built in the 1870s, which served for the drainage of the river polders around Vuren. This pumping station could be separated from the moat around the fort by means of a check lock above which a bridge was placed that formed part of the maintenance path. The pumping station has been demolished. Of all four locks/barriers, parts or traces are still present or recognisable.

Description

FORT LAYOUT AND EARTHWORKS, WET MOAT WITH OUTER BANKS, GLACIS AND PART OF (DIVERSION) ROAD AND WITH (DEMARCATED BY BOUNDARY STONES) MILITARY CROWN LAND of the Fort at Vuren, consisting essentially of a roughly almond-shaped, asymmetrical earthwork with different levels whose outer slopes have rounded forms and a short curtain. The layout and the earthworks date mainly from the periods 1844-1849 and 1873-1879. In the initial layout they consisted of two separate earth fortifications, a redoubt and a lunette, but these were combined into one earthwork in the second phase. The earthworks enclose the flat ground or terreplein of the fort, but essentially a bastion-shaped rampart was raised; this rampart structure is already recognisable on the 1874 CTK. The bombproof buildings and the counterscarp gallery on the fort are also covered with earth. The Fort at Vuren was built at the T-junction of the northern Waal dike and at the Herwijnsche Wetering, inundation channel. The road over the Waal dike initially ran between the two earthworks, but when these were combined, the road was diverted to the south around the fort. The current main form and layout still closely correspond to their appearance on drawings from around 1900. The fort grounds are partly crossed by a brick-paved path system, along which the buildings and other functions and components are accessible. Among those accessible functions are several so-called remises (bombproof storage places for guns, ammunition or other equipment). The moat of the Fort at Vuren is still almost completely present and forms a frame around the earthwork of the fort. The access to the fort is on the gorge side (west side), where from one land head two bridges crossed respectively the 'gorge moat' and the 'tower moat'. Both bridges were made of metal, but only the first still exists largely; of the second, the outer land head remains. The public diversion road lies on the southern outer bank of the wet moat. Here and there along the roads are concrete bins for grit. Along the north side, the maintenance path is also still present; in the slope of the accompanying envelope/glacis and on the fort, concrete structures, such as (group) shelters, were built in several places in the 20th century. The public road leads on the west side with a sharp bend over the now silted inundation lock/discharge lock at this location; here there has also been a fort keeper's house since time immemorial. The current example is a successor to an earlier keeper's house, which stood slightly further east. Of three other locks, all on the east side of the fort, traces are still present. The coherence of the water works, the fort and the inundation and field of fire to be defended is still clearly recognisable. The zone originally marked with stone boundary stones as such, over which the Ministry of War had authority, is indicated on the map accompanying this document.

Valuation

FORT LAYOUT AND EARTHWORKS, WET MOAT WITH OUTER BANKS, GLACIS AND PART OF (DIVERSION) ROAD AND WITH (DEMARCATED BY BOUNDARY STONES) MILITARY CROWN LAND of the Fort at Vuren are of general importance by virtue of:

* Cultural-historical values as components of the New Holland Water Line as designed by C.R.T. Kraijenhoff and initially realised from 1815 by him, Jan Blanken and Major-Engineer Willem Offerhaus and subsequently strengthened and improved by others for more than 125 years.

* Architectural-historical values, particularly as an expression of military-strategic building science, which is based on: a. the system of inundation and access defence (19th century), b. the race with increasingly powerful offensive means (19th and 20th centuries).

The component is an example of an earth layout with road and path system, earth covering for various functions, moat, diversion road and military zone demarcated by means of boundary stones from the period 1844-1849 which was improved and expanded in later development phases (1873-1879) and the 20th century.

* Ensemble value and situational values due to its location within the system of the New Holland Water Line in general and in particular in the partly preserved and in any case clearly recognisable relationship with the field of fire.

* The component is representative because it shows different phases in the development of access defence on a large scale and in a partly intact physical environment and in particular that of the application of earth covering.

* The component is well preserved because, in a state virtually unchanged since around 1900, it shows the system of protection by means of earth covering and the likewise virtually unchanged ground plan.