Broek in Waterland is a village in the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

North Holland North Holland (, ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht (province), Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevola ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, with a population of about 2,745 inhabitants as of 2021. It is a part of the municipality of

Waterland Waterland () is a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland. It is situated north of Amsterdam, on the western shore of the Markermeer. It includes t ...

, and is situated about 8 km south of

Purmerend Purmerend () is a city and municipality in the west of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. The city is surrounded by polders, such as the Purmer, Beemster and the Wormer. Purmerend's population grew relatively slowly until the 1960s ...

and 8 km northeast of

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 ...

. In the 17th and 18th century, the village was a popular residence for merchants and seafarers from Amsterdam. Due to its monument status, much of its history has been preserved.

History

Early years

Many of the houses in the village date back to before 1850. Before 1940 there had been only limited housing development. This meant that many houses were divided to accommodate several families under the same roof. The church of Broek in Waterland was built before 1400 and was dedicated to Saint Nicolas. On September 26, 1573, the church was razed to the ground by Spaniards during the

Eighty Years' War The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt (; 1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish Empire, Spanish government. The Origins of the Eighty Years' War, causes of the w ...

. In 1628 the inhabitants of Broek in Waterland started to rebuild the church on the foundations of the old building. The pulpit was donated to the church in 1685 by a wealthy couple who were married there in 1641. It is made of ebony, rosewood and pallisander wood, which give it a dark colour and delicate texture. The church organ was built in 1832 by Wander Beekes. The church was extensively renovated in 1989. During this renovation, the original ceiling frescoes of cherubs and fruit garlands were rediscovered under old layers of paint.

Tourist attraction

Broek in Waterland was a popular vacation village for sea captains in the 1600s. The town has always been famous for its cleanliness. Many 17th and 18th century travel books of foreign travellers mentioned the cleanliness and tidiness of the village.

The extreme cleanliness of Broek in Waterland led French visitors in the first half of the eighteenth century to dub this dairying village "le temple de la propreté hollandaise".

Toxic chemical dump

Just to the south of the town was the site of a major

landfill A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...

. More than 10,000 drums of toxic chemical refuse was dumped here in the 1960s, most containing

dioxin Dioxin may refer to a number of different substances. Most notably: * 1,2-Dioxin or 1,4-dioxin, two unsaturated heterocyclic 6-membered rings in which two carbon atoms have been replaced by oxygen atoms, which gives the molecular formula C4H4O2 ...

-rich

2,4,5-T 2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (also known as 2,4,5-T), a synthetic auxin, is a chlorophenoxy acetic acid herbicide used to defoliate broad-leafed plants. It was developed in the late 1940s, synthesized by reaction of 2,4,5-trichlorophenol ...

, which was being produced in Amsterdam by the former company Philips Duphar (although they were cleared of responsibility by the courts), which were produced as the main defoliating ingredient of the

Agent Orange Agent Orange is a chemical herbicide and defoliant, one of the tactical uses of Rainbow Herbicides. It was used by the U.S. military as part of its herbicidal warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War from 1962 to 1971. T ...

formula, supplied to the Americans for their war in Vietnam, but other potentially hazardous chemicals were dumped here in large quantities, such as

MCPA MCPA (2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid) is a widely used phenoxy herbicide introduced in 1945. It selectively controls broad-leaf weeds in pasture and Cereal, cereal crops. The mode of action of MCPA is as an auxin, which are growth hormones t ...

lindane Lindane, also known as ''gamma''-hexachlorocyclohexane (γ-HCH), gammaxene, Gammallin and benzene hexachloride (BHC), is an organochlorine chemical and an isomer of hexachlorocyclohexane that has been used both as an agricultural insecticide an ...

, and Tedion. The extent of the pollution was uncovered in 1980, after it was decided that cleaning up the chemicals was too difficult, in 2003 authorities began to blanket the site with a new layer of topsoil, and in 2011 the area was (partially) re-opened as a 'nature' area.

Part of the municipality of Waterland

Broek in Waterland was a separate municipality until 1991, when it was merged with

.Ad van der Meer and Onno Boonstra, "Repertorium van Nederlandse gemeenten", KNAW, 2006.

Gallery

File:1151 Broek in Waterland, Netherlands - panoramio (20).jpg File:1151 Broek in Waterland, Netherlands - panoramio (21).jpg File:1151 Broek in Waterland, Netherlands - panoramio (18).jpg File:1151 Broek in Waterland, Netherlands - panoramio (15).jpg, Broek-in-waterland-canal-view

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Broek In Waterland Populated places in North Holland Former municipalities of North Holland Waterland