World Heritage Identification Number: 739
World Heritage since: 1995
Category: Cultural Heritage
WHE Type: Cultural Landscapes
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇳🇱 Netherlands (Kingdom of the)
Continent: Europe
UNESCO World Region: Europe and North America
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The Island of Schokland: A Testament to Human Resilience Against the Sea
The Island of Schokland, located within the municipality of Noordoostpolder in the Netherlands, stands as a remarkable testament to human resilience and adaptability in the face of nature's relentless forces. Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995, Schokland offers a unique glimpse into the age-old struggle between humans and the sea, a battle that has defined the Dutch landscape for centuries.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
Schokland was a peninsula that by the 15th century had become an island. Occupied and then abandoned as the sea encroached, it had to be evacuated in 1859. But following the draining of the Zuider Zee, it has, since the 1940s, formed part of the land reclaimed from the sea. Schokland has vestiges of human habitation going back to prehistoric times. It symbolizes the heroic, age-old struggle of the people of the Netherlands against the encroachment of the waters.
UNESCO Justification of the World Heritage Site
Criterion (iii): Schokland and its surroundings preserve the last surviving evidence of a prehistoric and early historic society that had adapted to the precarious life of wetland settlements under the constant threat of temporary or permanent incursions by the sea.
Criterion (v): Schokland is included in the agricultural landscape that was created as a result of the reclamation of the former Zuider Zee, part of the never-ceasing struggle of the people of the Netherlands against the water and one of the greatest and most visionary human achievements of the twentieth century. The history of this region is excellently represented in this small area, with its settlements, cemeteries, terps, dykes and parcel systems.
Encyclopedia Record: Schokland
Schokland is a former island in the Dutch Zuiderzee, in the municipality of Noordoostpolder. Schokland was an elongated strip of peat land which ceased to be an island when the Noordoostpolder was reclaimed from the sea in 1942. It is now just a slightly elevated part of the polder, with a still partly intact retaining wall of the waterfront of Middelbuurt. On 1 April 2014, it had 8 inhabitants, but according to Statistics Netherlands there are five people living on the former island.Additional Site Details
Area: 1,306 hectares
Number of Components: 1
(v) — Outstanding example of traditional human settlement
Coordinates: 52.63861111 , 5.771666667
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© GerardM, CC BY-SA 3.0 Resized from original. (This derivative is under the same CC BY-SA license.)
