Marken (; Marken's dialect: ''Mereke'') is a village in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

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 ...

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 ...

. It had a population of 1,745 as of 2021, and occupies a peninsula in the

Markermeer The Markermeer () is a lake in the central Netherlands in between North Holland, Flevoland, and its smaller and larger neighbors, the IJmeer and IJsselmeer. A shallow lake at 3 to 5 m in depth, matching the reclaimed land to its west, nor ...

. It was, until 1957, an island in the former

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 ...

. The characteristic wooden houses of Marken are a tourist attraction.

History

Early years

Marken was an island in the

. For some time during the later 19th and early 20th centuries, Marken and its inhabitants were the focus of considerable attention by

folklorists Folklore studies (also known as folkloristics, tradition studies or folk life studies in the UK) is the academic discipline devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currency in the 1950s to distinguish the ac ...

ethnographers Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

and

physical anthropologists Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a natural science discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates, particularly from ...

, who regarded the small fishing town as a relic of the traditional native culture that was destined to disappear as modernization of the Netherlands gained pace. Among them were

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (11 May 1752 – 22 January 1840) was a German physician, naturalist, physiologist and anthropologist. He is considered to be a main founder of zoology and anthropology as comparative, scientific disciplines. He has be ...

who examined a human skull from the island which he called

Batavus genuinus {{Short description, Taxonomic name given to human skull found in Netherlands Batavus genuinus (Latin for "native" or "authentic Batavian") was the name given in 1828 by the Göttinger professor Johann Friedrich Blumenbach to a human skull from the ...

; and was the Belgian painter

Xavier Mellery Xavier Mellery (9 August 1845, Laken – 4 February 1921, Brussels) was a Belgian symbolist painter. The son of a gardener at the Royal Palace of Laeken, Mellery initially worked with the painter-decorator Charles Albert. He attended the ...

who stayed in Marken at the request of

Charles De Coster Charles-Theodore-Henri De Coster (20 August 1827 – 7 May 1879) was a Belgian novelist whose efforts laid the basis for a native Belgian literature. Early life and education He was born in Munich; his father, Augustin De Coster, was a n ...

. Mellery was asked to create illustrative work and delivered several intimist works.

Cornelis Lely 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, a huge project – designed ...

's designs incorporated the island into a proposed

Markerwaard 200px, The Markerwaard would be on what is now the Markermeer The Markerwaard is the name of a proposed, but never built, polder adjoining the IJsselmeer in the central Netherlands. Its construction would have resulted in the near-total reclama ...

. A partial dike, built in 1941 in the north, is the first phase of that project which was stopped by

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. File:Marken Island2.jpg, Girls in traditional costumes (circa 1900) File:Eiland Marken - Visser 1900.jpg, Fisherman in traditional costume (circa 1900)

Recent times

The island appeared as a location in the 1970 film ''Puppet on a Chain''. In 1983, the

Marker Museum Marker Museum (; English: Marken's Museum) is a local museum in the village of Marken in the Netherlands. The museum focuses on the history of Marken, including its fishing heritage. The museum comprises six houses. The building is a Rijksmonumen ...

about the history of the island was opened. Marken was a separate municipality until 1991, when it was merged into

Geography

Marken is in the municipality of

in the east of the province of

in the west of the

. Marken is a

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

in the

, of which is it is the namesake, and is connected to the mainland of North Holland by a

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet T ...

. File:Marken NASA.jpg, Satellite image File:Calle principal Marken.JPG, Street in 2009 File:Grotewerf 21 28154.jpg, Wooden house File:Paard van Marken.JPG,

Paard van Marken The Paard van Marken () is a lighthouse on the Dutch peninsula Marken, on the IJsselmeer. It was built in 1839 by J. Valk. A primitive lighthouse had been on the location since the early 18th century; the current lighthouse has been a listed buildi ...

, the lighthouse File:Kerkbuurt 44 Museum 28224.jpg,

File:Marken Hafen um 1970 (Sp).jpg, Havenbuurt about 1970

References

External links

*
Marken
at the website of the municipality of

* {{Authority control Former islands of the Netherlands Former municipalities of North Holland Islands of North Holland Populated places in North Holland Waterland