Fort, vesting en -onderdelen, Fort Blauwkapel

English translation

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Description

Cluster 33. Fortification with earthworks.

NEW HOLLANDIC WATERLINE

Introduction

FORTIFICATION WITH EARTHWORKS COMPRISING (REMAINS OF) GUN EMPLACEMENT POSITIONS AND CONCRETE AND MASONRY WORK, WITH REDOUBT AND REMNANT RAVELIN, WITH WET MOAT WITH OUTER BANKS AND (RELICS OF DIVERSION AND MAINTENANCE) ROADS AND WITH BUILT AND CONSTRUCTED COMPONENTS as basic and characteristic components of Fort Blauwkapel. Forts were usually constructed on the basis of earthworks pre-laid in advance, which served as a foundation and were meant to prevent subsidence in (a wet and soft) soil. In the construction of the forts, besides this usually already tactically 'pre-formed' earthwork - which could itself already play 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, earthen coverings were created for various structures, to make them less vulnerable to impacts from enemy fire, earthen ramparts that covered the 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 moats to hinder possible approach of the fortification wall or fort terrain by an enemy until the very last moment. Forts were thereby only accessible via one or more bridges or alternatively via a narrow neck of land. Where for hydraulic or other reasons a permanent direct connection between internal and external area existed, it was constructed in such a way that it could only be crossed with the greatest difficulty. Use of so-called zigzag works, monks (at fortifications) and/or gate structures was usual in this regard. Existing watercourses were usually diverted via the moats, whereby usually (dam) sluices had to be used to maintain the water level in the moat. Along the outside of the moats there was often a road or a path, which could be constructed either in the form of a covered way (glacis/enveloppe), or could lie level with, or even above ground level. These roads or paths could have various functions, varying from public road to maintenance path and also from military covered way to exclusive access road to the fort. Outside the wet moat there was moreover often a zone (since time immemorial and sometimes still partly) marked with boundary posts as such, over which the Ministry of War had authority, the so-called Military Crown Land.

Fort Blauwkapel differs among other things from this general picture through the inclusion within the fortified terrain of the already existing hamlet of Blauwkapel, and the (hardly diverted) Maartensdijkse Vaart. Parallel to this the old path also continued through the fort. A part of the land within the fort thus had a civil purpose and, as a civilian enclave, did not form part of the Military Crown Land. The redoubt on the south side (gorge side) of the work was not directly connected to the fort and was separately moated. Another exceptional characteristic was that the fort had an entrance at the frontal side; this was guarded and defended by means of a bridge over the moat and a ravelin. A special aspect is also the railway to Hilversum (opened in 1874), which cut off part of the eastern moat and the ravelin of the work, a fact that in 1921 had a sequel when a connection between the lines to Amersfoort and Hilversum was established, whereby the railway again intersects the moat at the south-east side of the fort. In this so-called connecting railway a still recognisable dam sluice was built on the south-east side of the fort. The bridges over the sluice and in the diversion road running parallel with the railway - the Bastionweg - were replaced after the war by reinforced concrete examples. The protection of the fortification layout refers to the parcels indicated on the accompanying map; part of the heart of the fort remains outside the protection as a National Monument.

In more recent years various modifications of the work have taken place, including an expansion of the residential function, while at the south-west side of the fort works with large-scale earth movement have been carried out. A dam laid in place of the former bridge at the north side of Fort Blauwkapel was cleared at the end of 2003; the road was diverted eastward over a new bridge, somewhat modelled on historical examples. In the restructuring of the fort, the ditch (part of the Maartensdijkse Vaart) running approximately north-south through the fort was filled in. Part of the ramparts had already been levelled earlier. Public diversion roads have long surrounded the fort, which have now, however, lost their character in part. The fort is surrounded by a ring of (tall) trees.

Description

FORTIFICATION WITH EARTHWORKS COMPRISING (REMAINS OF) GUN EMPLACEMENT POSITIONS AND CONCRETE AND MASONRY WORK, WITH REDOUBT AND REMNANT RAVELIN, WITH WET MOAT WITH OUTER BANKS AND (RELICS OF DIVERSION AND MAINTENANCE) ROADS AND WITH BUILT AND CONSTRUCTED COMPONENTS of Fort Blauwkapel. The fort now consists principally of a quadrilateral, asymmetrical earthwork which - as regards ground plan - has four different bastions, the outer slope of which has pointed forms. The earthworks enclose the fort terrain or terreplein and the civil grounds almost entirely, while the other large bomb-proof buildings are also covered by earthworks. The fort was at the time built at the intersection of the axis Gageldijk (w) - Voordorpsedijk (e) and the road from Utrecht via Maartensdijk to Hilversum, but only the east-west connection was routed around the fort at that time. This old road from Utrecht to Hilversum ran until after the war over Maartensdijk - although in practice not through, but around the fort. The fort terrain is now intersected by a (newly) paved road with hard stone setts ('kinderhoofdjes') and a road system with the same paving and clinkers along which the buildings and other functions and components are accessible. The earthworks of the fort include remains of gun emplacement positions within the fort moat and remains of concrete and masonry work at gun emplacements, while in various places (earth-covered) concrete components from the 19th and 20th centuries lie. Here and there - among other places in the access road to the redoubt - paving of hewn stones ('kinderhoofdjes') or clinkers is still present. The moat of Fort Blauwkapel is still virtually complete (partly restored) and forms an extensive wet framework, as part of the layout. A special and increasingly rare element of the layout is the separate moat around the redoubt; most moats (early or mid-19th-century) around this type of work and around towers were filled in in later periods. The zone originally marked with boundary posts as such over which the Ministry of War had (no) authority, the Military Crown Land, forms part of the layout; exceptional and extremely rare is the civilian - thus not military - enclave in the heart of Fort Blauwkapel.

Valuation

The FORTIFICATION WITH EARTHWORKS COMPRISING (REMAINS OF) GUN EMPLACEMENT POSITIONS AND CONCRETE AND MASONRY WORK, WITH REDOUBT AND REMNANT RAVELIN, WITH WET MOAT WITH OUTER BANKS AND (RELICS OF DIVERSION AND MAINTENANCE) ROADS AND WITH BUILT AND CONSTRUCTED COMPONENTS of Fort Blauwkapel is of general importance by virtue of:

* Cultural-historical values as part of the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie (New Hollandic Waterline) 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 in particular as an expression of military-strategic building technology, which is based on: a. the system of inundation and access defence (19th century), b. the race with increasingly strengthened offensive means (19th century), c. the system of 'living' field fortification (20th century).

The component is an example of an earthen layout with roads and path systems, earthen covering for various functions, moat, (paved) (diversion) roads and military zone indicated by means of boundary posts from the period 1818-1821, which was improved in later development phases and which is characterised in particular by the civil (residential) functions integrated therein. Part of the land within the fort was civil in character.

* Ensemble value and situational values by virtue of its location within the system of the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie (New Hollandic Waterline).

* The component is representative (characteristic) because it shows various phases in the development of access defence on a large scale and in particular that of the application of earthen covering and of wet moats around forts. Exceptional are the maintained wet moat around the redoubt and the civil status of part of the fort terrain.

* The component is reasonably well preserved because the system of protection by means of earthen covering has remained fairly recognisable and because the ground plan and the entire moat (in the condition of 1921) have been largely preserved.