Watersnoodmuseum

On the night of 31 January 1953 a storm surge coincided with spring tide and the dykes of Zeeland, South Holland and North Brabant failed in dozens of places; 1,836 people died in the Netherlands, about seventy thousand were evacuated and some two thousand square kilometres flooded. The last breach, at Ouwerkerk, was closed in November 1953 by sinking four Phoenix caissons - surplus units built for the Mulberry harbours of the Normandy landings - into the gap. Those four caissons are still there, and the museum is inside them: one on the facts of the night, one on the rescue and the aftermath, one on the Delta Works built in response, and one on water and the future. The presentation is restrained and it is the national memorial as much as a museum, with the names of the dead recorded.

History

After the 40-year commemoration of the flood in 1993 a working group formed under Ria Geluk, and volunteers led by the architect Evert Joosse started the museum in one of the caissons; it was officially opened on 2 April 2001. On 6 November 2003, fifty years after the last gap in the dike at Ouwerkerk was closed, the four caissons were declared a National Monument to the 1953 flood, and in 2008-2009 the museum spread through all four (Wikipedia, Watersnoodmuseum).

What's there

• Four Phoenix caissons - surplus Mulberry harbour units sunk to close the last breach.
• The night of 31 January 1953 - the flood that killed 1,836 people in the Netherlands.
• The Delta Works response - the barriers and dams built after it.
• A memorial to the dead - the names recorded inside the caissons.

When to go

All year. Half a day.

What to expect

The subject is a disaster in living memory and the presentation is sober rather than dramatic; some visitors find it heavy going. Closed Mondays in winter. Public transport to Ouwerkerk is poor.

Nearby

Zierikzee is north; the Oosterschelde barrier is west.

Key facts