Johan van Valckenburgh (c. 1575 − 1624) was a Dutch military engineer who built fortresses. He is known for building the ''Bastion Henricus'' which was a fortification around

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. Today the Hamburg History Museum is on this site.

Biography

van Volckenburg was born in about 1575. He was working for Maurice of Orange in 1606 under the tutelage of Johan van Rijswijck. He was working as an engineer on his own account first within the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...

in the city of

Lüneburg Lüneburg, officially the Hanseatic City of Lüneburg and also known in English as Lunenburg, is a town in the German Bundesland (Germany), state of Lower Saxony. It is located about southeast of another Hanseatic League, Hanseatic city, Hambur ...

, but in his lifetime he is known to have worked on ten works including the waterway in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

. He worked on the fortifications in Hamburg from 1615 to 1625 on what became known as ''Bastion Henricus'' as well as work in Böhlau and

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

. His work in Hamburg introduced a second layer to the fortifications to protect against the

Thirty Years War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine, or disease, whil ...

. He created a "New Town" (''Neustadt'') whose street names still dates from the grid system of roads he introduced. van Volckenburg died in 1625 as a Dutch soldier fighting the Spanish during the Eighty Years War in 1625. He is remembered by a plaque on Hamburg's city walls. He also has the bridge illustrated named after him and the ''Valckenburgschule'' training centre in Ulm.Valckenburgschule
accessed 3 November 2012

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Valckenburgh, Johan van Year of birth unknown 1570s births 1625 deaths 17th-century Dutch engineers Dutch military engineers Dutch military personnel killed in action Dutch people of the Eighty Years' War People from Voorburg