Cornelis Lely (; 23 September 1854 – 22 January 1929) was a Dutch politician of the Liberal Union and civil engineer. He oversaw the passage of an act of parliament authorising construction of the

Zuiderzee Works The Zuiderzee Works () is a system of dams and Levee, dikes, land reclamation and water drainage work, which was the largest hydraulic engineering project undertaken by the Netherlands during the twentieth century. The project involved the dammin ...

, a huge project – designed to his own plans – that turned the

Zuiderzee The Zuiderzee or Zuider Zee (; old spelling ''Zuyderzee'' or ''Zuyder Zee''), historically called Lake Almere and Lake Flevo, was a shallow bay of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands. It extended about 100 km (60 miles) inla ...

into a lake and made possible the conversion of a vast area of former seabed into dry land.

Lelystad Lelystad () is a Dutch Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and the capital city of the province of Flevoland in the central Netherlands. The city, built on reclaimed land, was founded in 1967 and was named after Cornelis Lely, who en ...

, the capital of the province of

Flevoland Flevoland () is the twelfth and newest province of the Netherlands, established in 1986, when the southern and eastern Flevopolders, together with the Noordoostpolder, were merged into one provincial entity. It is in the centre of the countr ...

, is named after him.

Early life

Cornelis Lely was born on 23 September 1854 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, son of an oilseed trader. Lely went to the

Hogere Burgerschool The ''Hogere Burgerschool'' (''HBS'') (Dutch: Higher Civic School) was a secondary school type that existed between 1863 and 1974 in the Netherlands and the Dutch Empire. These schools, with a five- or sometimes six-year program, continued in 1 ...

(HBS). He later studied at the Polytechnic School of Delft and graduated as

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

in 1875.

Career outline

Between 1886 and 1891, Lely led the technical research team that explored the possibility, later approved by a State Commission, of enclosing the

. The Dutch parliament passed the law creating the

on 14 June 1918, using Lely's plan. He served three times as Minister of Transport and Water Management (in 1891–1894, 1897–1901, and 1913–1918) and in this role was hugely influential in advocating the implementation of his own plans. The scheme was finally approved and realised after severe flooding along the shores of the Zuiderzee in 1916. In 1898 as minister he implemented a law on local railroads and tramways, which played a significant role in the development of the Dutch countryside. In 1895 Lely became member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to various advisory a ...

. Lely was governor of Suriname from 1902 to 1905. In Suriname, he achieved the initiation and construction of the

Lawa Railway The Lawa Railway (Dutch language, Dutch: ''Lawaspoorweg'' or later ''Landsspoorweg'') was a single-track metre gauge railway in Suriname. It was built during the gold rush in the early 20th century, from the harbour town Paramaribo to Dam at the ...

from

Paramaribo Paramaribo ( , , ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's p ...

to Benzdorp.

Remembrance

The city of

, situated in the Eastern Flevoland

polder A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrology, hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as levee, dikes. The three types of polder are: # Land reclamation, Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a ...

and capital of

province, was named after him. The flags of the province and of the city are both adorned with a white

fleur-de-lys The ''fleur-de-lis'', also spelled ''fleur-de-lys'' (plural ''fleurs-de-lis'' or ''fleurs-de-lys''), is a common heraldic charge in the (stylized) shape of a lily (in French, and mean and respectively). Most notably, the ''fleur-de-lis'' ...

to note his contribution. In the city of

the "Cornelis Lelylaan", a major thoroughfare, is named after him and the Amsterdam Lelylaan station, one of the city's main railway stations, is situated on this road. In 1905, the Surinamese village of Kofi Djompo was renamed

Lelydorp Lelydorp (Sranan Tongo: ''Kofi Djompo'') is the capital city of Wanica District, located in Suriname’s north. With a population of 18,663 (2012), it is the second largest city in Suriname, after Paramaribo. History Pad van Wanica For centuri ...

in his honour; Lely having led the construction of a new railway from Paramaribo that ran through the area. Most of the railway has now gone, but Lelydorp survives and is now the capital of

Wanica District Wanica is a district of Suriname located in the north of the country. Wanica's capital city is Lelydorp, the second-largest city in Suriname. Wanica has a population of 118,222 and an area of 443 km2. Following neighboring Paramaribo, Wani ...

. It lies on the road from

Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport , also known as Paramaribo-Zanderij International Airport, and locally referred to simply as JAP, is an airport located in the town of Zanderij and hub for airline carrier Suriname Airways, Surinam Airway ...

. A

statue A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or Casting (metalworking), cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to ...

of Lely stands on the western point of the

Afsluitdijk The Afsluitdijk (; ; "closure dyke") is a major dam and causeway in the Netherlands. It was constructed between 1927 and 1932 and runs from Den Oever in North Holland province to the village of Zurich, Friesland, Zurich in Friesland province, o ...

. It was sculpted by Mari Andriessen and dedicated on 23 September 1954, the 100th anniversary of Lely's birth. A replica of this statue stands in the center of Lelystad, on a tower of

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

blocks, designed by . In Lelystad's city hall is a statue of Lely made by

Piet Esser Vincent Pieter Semeyn Esser known as Piet Esser (9 March 1914, BaarnJ. F. Staal, ''Grote Winkler Prins: Encyclopedie in twintig delen, Volume 17'', 7th ed, Elsevier, 1966, , p. 274 (in Dutch). – 19 November 2004) was a Dutch sculpture, sculpto ...

Honours and decorations

References

External links

* *
Dr. C. Lely
Parlement & Politiek *
Dr. C. Lely (liberaal)
Eerste Kamer der Staten-Generaal * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lely, Cornelis 1854 births 1929 deaths Canal engineers Commanders of the Order of the Netherlands Lion Delft University of Technology alumni Dutch civil engineers Dutch technology writers Environmental engineers Governors of Suriname Hydraulic engineers Irrigation engineers Liberal State Party politicians Liberal Union (Netherlands) politicians Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Members of the Provincial Council of South Holland Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the Senate (Netherlands) Ministers of economic affairs of the Netherlands Ministers of transport and water management of the Netherlands Municipal councillors of The Hague Politicians from Amsterdam Technical writers Viaduct engineers Water resource management in the Netherlands Zuiderzee Works 19th-century Dutch civil servants 19th-century Dutch engineers 19th-century Dutch male writers 19th-century Dutch politicians 20th-century Dutch civil servants 20th-century Dutch engineers 20th-century Dutch male writers 20th-century Dutch politicians Engineers from Amsterdam