The Beemster, a former lake, was drained between 1607 and 1612 by a ring dike and a coordinated array of windmills financed by Amsterdam merchant investors. The new land was laid out on a strict geometric grid of fields, roads and canals reflecting Renaissance ideals of rational order. It became a model for later reclamations of the Schermer, Purmer and Wormer. The orthogonal landscape survives largely intact.
The Beemster is the archetype of the planned, investor-financed Dutch polder and an early fusion of hydraulic engineering with rational spatial design.
See it on the timeline →