Kazemat, De Bilt

English translation

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Description

Cluster 31. Prefab machine-gun casemates.

NEW HOLLAND WATERLINE

Introduction

PREFAB MACHINE-GUN CASEMATES at Fort Ruigenhoek, as components of access defence based on adaptation of already existing fortification and trench systems and the like. Concrete casemates and shelters formed a response to the arrival of heavy projectiles and high-explosive shells with high-explosive charges. However, the earliest types of concrete works offered only protection against shrapnel and were called 'shrapnel-proof'. From the beginning of the twentieth century, experiments were conducted with deconcentrated, small concrete (group) shelters and to a limited extent also with casemates. In doing so, sometimes ad hoc use was made of existing, available materials such as railway rails, rubble, wooden beams and concrete slabs, but alongside this prefabricated components were assembled or concrete was poured on site. Thus, various - whether or not unique - traces of such concrete experiments can still be found in different places within the New Holland Waterline.

In the Fort Ruigenhoek complex there are two identical, early concrete prefab concrete casemates dating from the period 1914-1918; this experimental type does not occur anywhere else, making their rarity very great. One specimen is located centrally on the north side of the fort in the curtain wall and could cover the Kikkersloot and the Kikkerpad. The other lies in the eastern curtain and covered the Ruigenhoekse Dijk.

Description

Two mutually identical PREFAB MACHINE-GUN CASEMATES at Fort Ruigenhoek, constructed 1915/1916 and of a type that has only been applied at this fort and is thereby rare. The casemates have a rectangular footprint (approx. 6 x 3 m) and have walls / facades of prefab elements, assembled from reinforced concrete. Wooden roof beams support an equally prefab concrete roof. The casemates are earthed over, but can be recognized fairly well.

Valuation

The two PREFAB MACHINE-GUN CASEMATES at Fort Ruigenhoek are of general interest because of:

* Cultural-historical values as part of the New Holland Waterline as designed by C.R.T. Kraijenhoff and initially from 1815 realised 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 military-strategic building practice, which is based on: a. the system of inundation and access defence (nineteenth and twentieth centuries), b. the arms race with increasingly strengthening offensive means (nineteenth and twentieth centuries).

These are two components from the period 1914-1918 that are early, experimental examples of casemates executed in prefabricated concrete, steel and wood.

* Ensemble value and situational values as part of the New Holland Waterline. Also because of the functional and physical coherence with the other components of the complex.

* The components are rare in number and as early examples of military concrete experiments and representative (characteristic) because they are clearly recognizable as components added to an existing work.

* The components are fairly well preserved and can be recognized as built elements and in function.