The Beemster Polder
A "polder" is a tract of
land reclaimed from the sea by high embankments. In 1608-1612 the
Banestra Lake was drained under the direction of Jan Adriaenz
Leeghwater (1575-1650), a carpenter and hydraulic engineer and
dykebuilder. The lake was ten feet deep and was drained in one year
with 26 windmills. His portrait appears in the upper left-hand corner
of the souvenir sheet.
The background of the sheet is a map of the Beemster
polder after the lake was drained and the land surveyed. It is based
on the map Agri Biemstrani Descriptio by Petrus Kaerius,
published in 1617.
The stamp was issued in honor of Amphilex, the
International Stamp Show held in Amsterdam in 2002.
The Delta
On February 1, 1953 a
combination of spring floods and heavy storms put large areas in the
south-western part of the country under water. This disaster, which
cost nearly 2,000 lives, underlined the urgency of completing the
Delta Project, the plan to construct a network of barriers closing off
the estuaries in the south west. with the exception of the New
Waterway and the Western Scheldt, which remain open to allow shipping
access to the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, Belgium.
The Eastern Scheldt basin has been closed off by means
of a storm surgeover 3,200 meters long. Normally the gates remain open
and permit the sea to flow in and out of the Eastern Scheldt; in
stormy weather they are lowered to protect the estuary from high water
levels. On October 4, 1986, Queen Beatrix officially marked the
completion of the Delta Project by opening the storm surge barrier in
the Eastern Scheldt.
The stamp, issued in 1972, shows the project as it was
expected to appear on completion.
Fryslan
Fryslan (Friesland) is
the maritime province which includes land reclaimed from the former
Zuider Zee area. The capital is Leeuwarden. (which is in the map above
the “4” in 1498). Ruled as a county of the Holy Roman Empire during
the Middle Ages, Friesland passed to Saxony in 1498 and, after a
revolt, to Charles V of Spain. In 1579 it subscribed to the Treaty of
Utrecht, opposing Spanish rule. The stamp is part of a set issued in
1998 to commemorate the half-millennium of Fryslan as a part of the
Netherlands.
Municipalities
The stamp was issued in
1987 to recognize the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Union of the
Netherlands Municipalities.
Council of State
The stamp was issued in
1991 to recognize the four hundred fiftiety anniversary of the Council
of State.
