Schokland
Schokland is symbolic for the unrivalled struggle the people of the Netherlands have waged against water. It's history starts in prehistoric times, as part of the mainland. From around 1000 AD fishermen and farmers started to occupy this area to make a living.
In the following centuries the water rose and rose, until Schokland finally ended up as an island. This was at the end of the Middle Ages. Fishing and shipping became the main source of income for the Schoklanders.
Living on the island wasn't to last forever: in 1859 the inhabitants were ordered to leave. Life had become too dangerous due to the ever rising sealevel.
But that's not the end of the story: in 1941 the surrounding area (called Noordoostpolder) was drained to create more agricultural land to feed the Dutch (and German) people. Schokland became part of the mainland again.
Visit June 2002, March 2007
Amidst the endless potato fields of Flevoland, the former island of Schokland stands out. The village of Middelbuurt is a "terp": a mound in the flat landscape.
On Middelbuurt, what used to be the main village of Schokland, a few houses and a charming church are left. Nobody lives here anymore though.
I visited the Schokland Museum on Middelbuurt. A good place to dive into the history of this place. There are also short walks in the area, that let you come up close with the somewhat desolate landscape.
During my second visit I was blessed to be in the company of a knowledgeable guide, which really helps to get a feeling for the place. This time we also visited the remains of the former village of Emmeloord, which was located on the other side of the island from where the museum is. Both sites are now divided by a road and some contemporary agricultural landscape.
More photos can be found in the Picture Gallery
Reviews
Ian Cade (England):
 The terp is one of the few features in the landscape, from a distance it just looks like a clump of trees. I wasn’t really expecting a large site but the size still surprised me it is very small. We turned up at about 9.20 am and the village/museum does not open until 11 am. The kind lady that was sweeping up let us have a look in the gift shop (the UNESCO plaque and certificate is here) and a quick peek through at the museum.
After that we had a walk around the terp and in the surrounding fields, from the back you can see it sitting up from the landscape a little more. From behind you could look into the museum a little more and it is very small there are only about 7 or 8 buildings of which the church is the most prominent. After about 20 minutes we were back at the car, feeding a goat that had its head stuck in a fence, as we had a full schedule for the day we didn’t wait for the museum to open.
There are very few (none?) public transport links here, but it is well sign posted from the A6 motorway, it is about an hour drive from Amsterdam and about 25 minutes to the Ir D.F. Wouda Steam Pumping Station.
All in all this has to be the most underwhelming visit I have had to a World Heritage site, admittedly I didn’t get to see the museum which may have added to the experience, but the prospect of a small folk museum won’t be enough to drag me back here anytime soon. |
| Date posted: July 2006 |
Joyce (Netherlands):
 Driving by Schokland you don’t see a significant thing, but when you stop and take some time to look around, it actually is quite an interesting place.
We visited the small museum which had some good information about the island of Schokland through the years: the first people who lived there, the problems with water which eventually led to evacuation of the island and the poldering of the land around the island. The small church on the island is still intact and there’s a photo exhibit inside, which can be quite funny if you look at them up close (geez, those people on the island were not supermodels!).
A walk around the former island is nice too, you can still see where the edge of the island is and there are still some remainders of buildings. |
| Date posted: February 2006 |
Alex E. Denhaan, Mr. (California, USA):
Hard to imagine that it was an island once, adjacent to the open sea.Now, thru extensive diking and land reclamation costing billions of dollars, a part of newly acquired land wrested from the North Sea by eminent Dutch civil engineering. At one time human bones would float by from the graveyard during heavy storms.Now it is a protected part of the mainland creating a new 12th Province when there were 11 only before 1950. Land reminescent of the past when it was an island of Dutch fishermen families. |
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Martin (Netherlands):
Fantastisch mooi Nederland. Een plek waar oud en nieuw elkaar ontmoeten, desolaat leven moet het hier geweest zijn. Je merkt bij een wandeling van noord naar zuid goed hoe het moet zijn geweest, hoe hopeloos het vechten voor het bestaan was op dit kleine eiland. Een eiland dat nu omringd is door de NO-polder, drooggelegd met tecnieken die alleen op grote schaal , en niet voor iets nietigs als Schokland, toegepast kunnen worden. Industriele revolutie pur sang |
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Jos Boerdijk (The Netherlands):
I was born on Schokland and lived there for many years.It is a beautiful and still quiet part of the Netherlands.You can still good see how the former island has formed. You can make nice walkings and bicycle tour round the former island.In the museum the history is exposed.Have a look !! |
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