Giethoorn (Stellingwerfs: Gietern) is a water region village in
the head of Overijssel, in the municipality of Steenwijkerland in
the Dutch province of Overijssel and is located between Steenwijk
and Meppel.
Giethoorn was an independent municipality until
1973. It then became part of the municipality of Brederwiede,
together with Wanneperveen, Blokzijl and Vollenhove. On January 1,
2001, the municipalities of Brederwiede, Steenwijk and IJsselham
merged to form the municipality of Steenwijkerland.
The
village has 2630 inhabitants and is known for its bridges, waterways
and punts. It is called the 'Dutch Venice'. Giethoorn is elongated
and consists of three neighborhoods that are always staggered from
each other. In the north it is the Noordeinde, followed by the
Middenbuurt and finally the Zuideinde. The Dorpsgracht is the
central axis of Giethoorn and ends in the south in the Zuideindiger
Wijde. The farms and houses are separated by lot ditches over which
are platforms connecting the house lots. The humpback farm is
characteristic of Giethoorn. The farm seems to have a hump because
the barn is higher than the house.
The peatland created
puddles and lakes. Canals and ditches were dug to transport the
peat. Many houses are built on islands, as it were, which can only
be reached via bridges. Most of the more than 176 bridges are
private property.
The only through land connection through
the old village is a bicycle-cum-walking path that runs from
Noordeinde to Zuideinde and is only interrupted by Kerkweg between
Noordeinde and Middenbuurt. The main traffic takes place over the
water. The main traditional craft used for this was the punt,
propelled by a punt boom (punting). Nowadays all kinds of
motor-powered boats are used for this and there is hardly any
punting anymore.
The first mention of Giethoorn dates from 1225. Flagellants are often mentioned as founders of Giethoorn. Gait L. Berk writes about it, "If that's true, it's fantastic. Imagine a bunch of ragged bigots flogging themselves and wandering madly to become ancestors of a well-dressed and calmly toiling people." Berk also makes a connection with the monastery that used to be in Giethoorn-Noord. These pioneers are said to have found many goat horns from goats killed in the storm surge of 1170 from the Zuiderzee. Following this statement, they would have named their settlement Geytenhorn. Later that became Geythorn, and thanks to the dialect it became Giethoorn. The goat horn can be found in the coat of arms of Giethoorn. However, according to linguists, "horn" means "corner of land jutting out in the water", which is also suggested by the shape "Gethorne" (1230).
Giethoorn was a
settlement of peat cultivators. The exploitation started from the
east bank of the Giethoornsche Meer and consisted of gorges facing
east that were separated by waterways, such as the Cornelisgracht
and the Walengracht. The Dwarsgracht formed a rear quay of such a
development. As the development progressed through the centuries,
the village was moved eastwards. The last time this happened in the
17th century, when the village of the Gieterse Dijk, which was later
called Beukersweg, was moved to the area of the current
Dorpsgracht. Around 1750 the village switched from peat bogs as the
basis of life to livestock farming. The canals were initially dug
for the removal of peat, but became more and more important for the
agricultural sector. After the last relocation of the village to the
Dorpsgracht, Giethoorn took on the character of a water village with
a canal guided by a footpath with finders detachable for shipping.
In addition, the typical high bridges were added. These had to be
high in order to allow punters standing in the boat and high with
hay-laden goats unobstructed passage. The Gietersen also used their
boats for transport to surrounding places such as Steenwijk, Meppel,
Zwartsluis and Blokzijl.
A sailing culture developed with its
own Gieterse ship types. The Gieterse punt is the best known. This
is a boat of approximately 6.30 meters long and with a maximum width
of 1.45 meters. The punt was used for all kinds of transport.
Shopkeepers, such as the baker, took it around the village to sell
their wares. Workers working in peat making or cutting rushes and
reeds took them to work and could then take part of the harvest with
them in the punt. Furthermore, the punt was used for funerals and
weddings. Ferrymen who traveled to Steenwijk or Meppel on market
days to buy or sell merchandise also used the punt for a long time.
Visitors also often came to visit by punt. In Giethoorn, the punt
was boomed, and when the wind was favorable, we also sailed with a
spritsail and a sword that was hung on the other side when tacking
or jibing.
Punters were also used in "haul towing". When the
water level is high, the water is fed to a cragge, a soil consisting
of half-decayed plant remains, held together by the roots of water
plants, which floats through the air channels in the roots. This
collar was cut into one-meter wide strips and rolled on the side.
Then they were tied one after the other. This series of kraggen was
dragged behind a punt to a place where they wanted to reclaim land.
This transport also took place through the village canal.
A
stroke larger than the punt is the Gieterse raft, between 8 and 11
meters long and the width fluctuated around 2 meters. It was used
for transporting milk cans, hay, peat, wood, manure and reed. A
ferry service to the market in Meppel was maintained for a while
with the help of a ferry. Rafts were treeed and sailed with
favorable winds.
The largest ship used in Giethoorn was the
Gieterse bok, which could be more than 12 meters long and was
sometimes equipped with a cabin. The buck was used for the heaviest
transports and large amounts of hay, but also large cattle were
transported with the buck. Bucks were also rented out by punt makers
to farmers, for example, sometimes for a year, who then sublet them
to others for certain activities. Bucks were treeed and sailed when
the wind was favorable.
The rowboat was the smallest boat
traditionally used in Giethoorn and was locally called 'botie'.
These were 4 to 5 meters long. In contrast to the other vessels
(collectively called "Gevaer" in Giethoorn), this one was rowed.
These boats were used for milking or for short, quick trips.
This extensive use of boats led to a number of punt yards.
Sometimes numbers of 14 to 20 punt yards in Giethoorn are mentioned.
This is questioned at Berk and Niek van den Sigtenhorst ends up with
4 to 6 punt yards in Giethoorn.
In addition to the
aforementioned livestock farming and peat extraction, reed cutting
and cutting other water plants ("dulen") for roofing was also a
source of income. Fishing was also important in Giethoorn in the
19th century / early 20th century. Extracting crab shave as
fertilizer (shard pulling) was also an economic activity. Sand
extraction was also done. That sand was removed from the bottom of
the Bovenwijde with the help of punts.
Due to the storm
floods of 1775, 1776 and 1825, the narrow ribs with wide draw holes
were destroyed in the peatland area and the Bovenwijde and the
Molengat were created. Because the peat was no deeper than 1 meter
and there was a solid layer of sand underneath, the maximum depth of
these lakes is also limited to 1 meter, with the exception of a
place in the southwest of the Bovenwijde where sand was extracted on
a larger scale. In 1825 there were no fatalities in Giethoorn
because the population could bring themselves to safety with their
vessels. There was also a lake directly west of Giethoorn. This lake
was drained in the 19th century and was called the Gietersche
Polder.
From 1928 Polder Giethoorn (a different polder than
the above mentioned Giethoorn polder) was created. The land was
expropriated while the population of Giethoorn protested vehemently.
With the help of unemployed people employed, the swampy area was
reclaimed and other farms were built with more modern management,
without the characteristic sailing culture of Giethoorn. A few
Gieters farmer could continue his business in this polder, but most
farmers came from other parts of the country. The Gietersen then
converted the land east of Giethoorn into pasture land.
In
1950, after a brief revival in the Second World War, peat extraction
in the area around Giethoorn came to an end.
Bert Haanstra recorded his feature debut
Fanfare in Giethoorn in 1958, a film about two rival brass bands in
the fictional village of Lagerwiede. After the release of the film
Fanfare (which was watched by 2.6 million people) tourism increased
sharply. It became the main source of income. From the 1970s
onwards, foreign tourists also came, especially from the neighboring
countries of Germany and Belgium.
Leaf reed was used until
1966 as a cover for bulb fields and provided income for the Gieteren
farmers. Straw was used for this after 1966. The boating farmers
disappeared from the village image. The farms were converted into
homes and inhabited by people from elsewhere. The lands of sailing
farmers gradually come into the possession of the Natuurmonumenten,
which is building up the large reserve De Wieden in the region
around Giethoorn. The N334 will be converted into a good through
connection because the road was built through the Belterwijde in the
fifties of the twentieth century and in the sixties a wide road
along the Beukers-Steenwijk canal towards Steenwijk. A new housing
development will appear on the northern edge of the Giethoornsche
Polder. Marinas and other facilities for water sports will be built
along the Beukers-Steenwijk Canal.
In 2005 'Holland
Marketing' opened an office in Beijing to attract Chinese tourists
to the Netherlands. The Giethoorn hotel owner Gabriella Esselbrugge
successfully promoted the village through this company among the
emerging increasingly well-off Chinese middle class (who could now
also get a passport) using picturesque images of thatched farms,
punts and other highlights from the village. She appealed to
traditional Chinese values and nostalgia and longing for the
Chinese rural idyll. Esselbrugge hired a Chinese-Dutch woman to
serve the tourists in their own language. From 2014 she also opened
'Dutch' places in China, where Chinese guests could also find flyers
from Giethoorn in addition to 'Dutch' food. A campaign was also set
up to attract Arab tourists from Bahrain and Dubai in order to
further expand the tourist season. According to estimates in 2020, 1
to 1.5 million tourists a year come to Giethoorn.