Enkhuizen

Around 1600 Enkhuizen had a population of some twenty thousand and a herring fleet larger than Amsterdam's, and it built accordingly: three harbours, the Drommedaris gate tower of 1540 on the entrance, the Waag, the Westerkerk with a wooden bell tower, and streets of merchant houses. Then the herring moved, the harbours silted, and the town shrank to seven thousand and stayed there for three centuries, which is why the seventeenth-century fabric is so complete. The Zuiderzee Museum here is the national record of what the closing of the Zuiderzee in 1932 ended: an outdoor section of about a hundred and forty buildings moved from villages around the former sea and rebuilt as a working settlement with craft demonstrations, and an indoor museum with the boats, nets and material of the fishing culture. Ferries cross to Stavoren and Urk in season.

History

The name appears as early as 1283, as Enkus(e), in a document about a robbery of English merchants, and later as Enchusen in 1311 and Enghusen in 1334; one theory traces it to enk or eng, old words for a high-lying field. The town grew into one of the wealthiest fishing and trading ports of the Dutch Golden Age (Wikipedia, Enkhuizen).

What you'll find

• A town that stopped in 1600 - fabric preserved by three centuries of decline.
• The Drommedaris - the 1540 gate tower on the harbour entrance.
• The Zuiderzee Museum - about 140 buildings moved and rebuilt as a village.
• What 1932 ended - the fishing culture the closing of the Zuiderzee finished.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Practical notes

The outdoor museum is seasonal and closed in winter; the indoor part opens year round. Ferries are seasonal. The town is busy with day-trippers and boaters in summer.

Nearby

Hoorn is west; Medemblik is north; Stavoren is across the water.

Key facts