Urk is a former island and current municipality in the province
of Flevoland in the Netherlands. With 21,135 inhabitants (1 August
2020, source: CBS ) on an area of approximately 11.54 km² (and
98.36 km² of water), Urk is the smallest municipality in this
province in terms of area. Until the dike connecting Urk with Lemmer
was completed in 1939 , Urk was an island in the IJsselmeer, the
former Zuiderzee (until the Afsluitdijk was completed in 1932) . In
1942 the Noordoostpolder became. The island is still alive today for
the inhabitants of Urk. For example, people are not or live in Urk,
but in Urk.
Urk can be described as the most ecclesiastical
community in the Netherlands, 98% of the inhabitants are members of
a church community. It is a very close community with its own
dialect, Urk, which is still extremely vital and differs a lot from
the other dialects in the area. Urk also has its own national
anthem, which is sung during the annual aubade on King's Day and
other official occasions. Urk has by far the largest fishing fleet
and fish processing industry in the Netherlands. The meaning of the
name Urk is unknown, but various theories exist about it.
There is an arc of boulder clay surfacing around
the IJsselmeer , which originated in the Pleistocene : Texel ,
Wieringen , Gaasterland , Urk, the Land van Vollenhove . As a result
of meltwater , a lake, the later Almere , has formed to the south of
that arc . The Vecht flowed into the Almere to the north of the
boulder clay bump of Urk . South of Urk, the IJssel flowed with its
side arms. The van Urk boulder clay bump reaches to a height of 9
meters above sea level .
Due to the warmer climate, the sea
level rose. Around 1200 the Zuiderzee was formed and Urk, like
Schokland , Marken and Wieringen, became an island . Because there
was no facing , large pieces of the island were knocked off over
time. The southwest side, which rose straight from the sea, was
called the High Cliff . Around 1700 the island was provided with a
seawall by the city of Amsterdam .
The oldest known mention of the name 'Urk' is Otto I 's deed of donation from 966 to the Monastery of Saint Pantaleon in Cologne. As was the case with many isolated population groups, different character sketches were also given about the Urk people, ranging from hospitable and a great sense of self-worth to stubborn and undisciplined, tough and tenacious. This last description is supported by the fact that the Urkers have mastered many disasters and drastic changes in living conditions in the past centuries, partly because the former island is built from boulder clay. This boulder clay is a tough, low-permeable raw material, which makes it extremely suitable for protecting the former island of Urk from the vagaries of the former Zuiderzee.
There was already permanent
residence in the 10th century, as evidenced by the above-mentioned
deed of gift. It can also be deduced from this deed that Urk was
then owned by the Monastery of Saint Pantaleon in Cologne . In the
13th century, Urk came into the hands of the counts of Holland and
later on the mayor of Enkhuizen . From 1476, the artisanship of Urk
came to the Utrecht family Zoudenbalch, successively from 1476
to 1495 Evert Zoudenbalch (1424-1503) , from 1495 to 1530 Evert
Zoudenbalch (1455-1530) , from 1530 to 1558 Johan Zoudenbalch
(1503-1558) ) , from 1558 to 1567Evert Zoudenbalch (1540-1567) ,
from 1567 to 1599 Gerrit Zoudenbalch (1541-1599) . He was succeeded
by his sister Walravina Zoudenbalch (1538-1616) who from 1601 to
1614 was the last lady of Urk and Emmeloord of this family.
Between 1614 and 1660 this manor was owned by the Van de Werve
family. In 1660 Johan van de Werve sold the island to Amsterdam .
The craftsmanship of Urk and Emmeloord was governed by various
Amsterdam regents such as Andries de Graeff , Nicolaes Witsen ,
Hendrik Daniëlsz Hooft and Jan Elias Huydecooper. Amsterdam
strengthened its position in the trade with this purchase, because
Urk was the central point in the Zuiderzee, along which all shipping
routes ran.
Urk and the Schokland Emmeloord remained part of
Amsterdam until 1792, after which the States of Holland took over
the island. In 1824 Urk became a North Holland municipality and
until 1950 Urk remained with the province of North Holland , then
until 1986 with the province of Overijssel . From January 1, 1986,
the municipality is part of Flevoland. This makes Urk the only
municipality in the Netherlands that is located in three provinces.
The first connection with the
mainland was by telephone. In 1897 a connection was established that
was especially important for the herring and anchovy trade. A second
cable was laid in 1912. This was to Kampen and cost more than
100,000 guilders. The cable was there before the post office was
renovated, so it could not be used immediately.
In 1939 Urk
was connected to a dike for the construction of the Noordoostpolder
as part of the Zuiderzee works . However, the village was completely
excluded from the planning when setting up that polder. In the years
before the Second World War, the Urk population was even considered
'retarded' by Dutch scientists , incapable of working on the land.
With these ideas, the new 'Urkerpolder' was set up in the 1930s. In order to solve the Urk problem (the island was overpopulated, had many diseases and many poor people and the fishing industry was considered 'doomed'), the proposal was even made that only half of the population and the future growth would be "out." to push "( move). This proposal did not make it, but it was clear that the Urkers were not included in the plans: the polder was renamed 'Noord-Oostelijke Polder' to keep the thought of Urk in the background as much as possible. Although the island was thus already connected to the land in 1939, the village did not get a road connection until 1948. The population of Urk was also not involved in the occupation, as they did not meet the "model population" that had to be attracted to the polder. Even the question from a Urk mayor to engineer Sikke Smeding , who was responsible for the layout of the polder, or Urk students at the agricultural school in Meppela chance on a farm in the polder, in response to the overpopulation of Urk, only resulted in a single allocation of a farm. The fishing industry was seriously damaged by the Zuiderzee works; with the arrival of the Noordoostpolder, fishing grounds disappeared (which in the early years sometimes manifested itself in a hostile attitude towards the new residents) and the loss of the IJsselmeer forced the Urk fishing fleet to move to other ports on the North Sea and Wadden Sea .
During the First World War, an internment camp for foreign officers was set up on Urk. Until 1917 there were a few dozen officers, who came from Belgium, France and the United Kingdom . In addition to the officers, Belgian soldiers were also interned for service functions. Because of the Dutch policy of neutrality , soldiers of foreign powers had to be kept away from acts of war directed against one of the warring parties.
The
German occupation also affected Urk. As a small and rather isolated
fishing village, Urk had no permanent occupation during the first
years of the war. The Noordoostpolder had not yet been drained,
which meant that Urk was still difficult to reach via land. Raids
generally had little result, because the Urkers saw the German boats
approaching from afar across the water. An exception was the 'Great
Razzia' of November 18, 1944, in which the Germans approached Urk
via the polder and were able to pick up eighty men and boys in one
go.
From the air, Urk was an easy point of reference for
Allied airmen who carried out attacks on Germany. In the course of
the war it became more and more crowded in the air above Urk. Allied
airmen who crashed above the Noordoostpolder were sometimes hidden
by Urkers. A pilot line ran from Urk via the boat service to
Enkhuizen. Killed airmen found a resting place in the cemetery of
the Kerkje aan de Zee .
From 1944 Urk was faced with
permanent occupation by the Germans. A NSB mayor was appointed. As
the war progressed, the food situation became more dire, but people
in Urk were not really hungry. Some children from the west even
found shelter with Urk families, where there was always some fish on
the table.
The fishing industry suffered greatly from the
occupation. In the course of the war, the occupying forces claimed
most of the Urk cutter fleet and many Urkers lost their livelihood.
After the war, most of the cutters were found scattered across
Europe and the Urk fleet could be rebuilt.
The liberation of
Urk took place on April 17, 1945, a few weeks before the
capitulation. On April 20, the first Canadians in Urk were warmly
welcomed. Some Urkers were killed during the German occupation.
Among them one Jewish family, the Kropveld family. Their names have
been immortalized on the war memorial at the Kerkje aan de Zee.
The population of Urk doubled in the first
twenty years after the Second World War. The enormous population
pressure may not have led to migration in the 1950s, because there
was also a great housing shortage in other parts of the Netherlands.
To relieve the pressure, it was eventually decided to make border
corrections with the Noordoostpolder municipality, which was formed
in 1962. However, the housing shortage has remained and many Urkers
have therefore moved (among others) to the neighboring Tollebeek and
Emmeloord .
The economic tide turned in the 1960s when a fish
auction was opened in Urk and a lively fishing industry was
established. The Urk fish auction is the largest in the Netherlands.
Some scientists have long thought that the "ancient Dutch race" would have been preserved on Urk. This led to studies into the skull size of the population in the 1930s (among others by the racial eugenicist H. Tj. Piebenga ) and before that to the robbery of skulls from Urk as part of scientific research (among others in 1877 by the Hilversum doctor Johannes Fredericus van Hengel , who managed to steal three skulls by means of an exchange trick and passed them on to Utrecht University ). Six of them remained in the possession of various Dutch universities and the German university of Göttingen until the early 21st century. However, the entire skull examination yielded hardly any scientific results. In 2005 these facts were discovered and published on Urk by investigation. However, the universities refused to return the skulls, which prompted residents to set up the Urk Skulls Committee in 2007 to try and get the skulls back on the island. In September 2009, the ethical advisory committee of the Dutch Museum Association ruled in favor of the committee. On June 5, 2010, six skulls were returned in a ceremony and church service.
In 2008, the Urkers fought in vain against the construction of 48
windmills on the coast, which would obscure them from the sea. After
the closure of the Zuiderzee by the Afsluitdijk in 1932, this was a
new battle.
On 1 January 2019, the municipality on the north
and south sides was expanded with parts of the Noordoostpolder
municipality to enable the expansion of the Urkerbos on the north
side and the construction of a business park to the south of the
town. Since only a small number of residents were involved in this,
Urk was not involved in the 2018 municipal redivision elections.
The important economic pillar of the village is fishing.
Traditionally, the Urkers depended on fishing and, to a lesser extent,
on agriculture to provide for their livelihood. Poverty was trump
because fishing was not always successful. Fishing was also dangerous.
The names of all drowned fishermen are listed at the fishermen's
monument.
The turning point for Urk came with the closure of the
Zuiderzee in 1932. The Afsluitdijk put an end to the Zuiderzee for good
and the days of the island of Urk were also numbered. The salty
Zuiderzee became a fresh IJsselmeer and, according to the experts,
fishing on Urk would soon be over. After all, the IJsselmeer offered too
little space to offer everyone a place to fish and the North Sea would
also become inaccessible because Urk was almost in the middle of the
Netherlands.
That expectation has not come true. It is called
'the Wonder of Urk'. The Urkers went beam trawl fishing in the North Sea
and larger cutters were built. The Urk fish auction grew steadily. Until
the late 1970s, the fish was often supplied via the Urker harbour. After
that time, the cutters became too large to travel across the IJsselmeer
to the home port and the fish was transported by truck from seaports
such as IJmuiden, Harlingen, Delfzijl and Lauwersoog to be traded in
Urk. A huge fish processing industry grew up around the fish auction.
The catch limits started in 1975. These quotas and the increased
fuel prices sharply reduced the profitability of the beam trawl fishery.
Because the average family size in Urk is much larger than the
national average, the average family income in 2006 was 16% below the
national average. This made Urk the poorest municipality in the
Netherlands in 2006 on paper. Unemployment is much lower than the
national average. In December 2010, 1% of the population received
unemployment benefits, compared to 2.4% nationally.
Urk has been
the most generous municipality in the Netherlands for many years. In
2008, € 52.64 per household was spent on charities. This is in contrast
to Amsterdam, where donations per household remained at € 0.59 that
year.
The municipality of Urk has four shopping centres:
Old Urk
(formerly called: District 2)
Urker hard
The Hofstee
Pyramid
road
There is a goods market at the Urkerhard shopping center on
Saturday mornings. On the Saturday before Pentecost (Urkerdag) and on
King's Day, a market is held on the harbor grounds.
The municipality of Urk has the highest birth rate in the Netherlands
with approximately 21.8 children per 1000 inhabitants, against 11.4 for
the national average. As a result, Urk has the highest percentage of
young people up to the age of 14 at 32.2% and the lowest percentage of
over-65s at 8%. The percentage of households with children is the
highest here, together with the also largely religious reformed
municipality of Staphorst. The municipality of Urk deviates strongly
from the Dutch averages in economic, religious and demographic terms, as
well as in terms of average income.
As elsewhere in the
Netherlands, the number of births in Urk is also falling. In 1988, 384
children were born (the birth rate was then 30.3‰). In 1988, a woman had
an average of 3.9 children. Despite the population doubling between
1988-2019, the number of births has remained virtually the same with 389
live births in 2019. The birth rate has therefore fallen to 18.9‰
(highest in the Netherlands) and the fertility rate has fallen to 2.6
children per woman.
Centuries of isolation leave its mark, also in the genes. Because the
Urkers almost only married among themselves, the Urkers have many
hereditary characteristics in common. This increases the risk of certain
hereditary disorders. Van Buchem's disease is a typical Urker disease.
About 35 patients with this disease are known, all with their roots in
Urk.
Like other fishing towns – such as Volendam and Spakenburg –
Urk has a drinking and drug problem among some of the youth.
According to a report from the Regional Information and Expertise Center
(RIEC) from 2019, the 'us-knows-us culture' in Urk, combined with
international trade, leads to subversive crime, in particular human
trafficking (employee exploitation, sexual exploitation) and drug crime
(cocaine trade).
The old village center is a protected village view
The perimeter
of the former island has been marked by a pole screen since 2021. For
example, you can walk a "circle of Urk" and get information from
information panels at historical locations.
Lighthouse
Fisherman
Monument
Urk war memorial
Church by the Sea
Bethel Church
Various Urk church organs
The IJsvlet
Urker Museum 'The Old Town
Hall'
IJsselmeer fish auction
The lively harbor, with a few
shipyards still in operation
The Butter Barn
Urk corn
In
addition to its reputation for fishing, Urk has also become known for
the large number of choirs in the village. Every year, various events
are organized in which the various choirs contribute.
Some
well-known Urk choirs are:
The Urker Men's Choir 'Hallelujah'
BC
Urk Fisherman's Choir Crescendo
BC Male choir Soli Deo Gloria Urk
BC Men's choir Island Urk
January - Orange Concert, last Saturday of January in the Bethel
Church
February - Prayer Day Concert, second Wednesday of February in
the Rehoboth Church
May - Singing on Ascension Day, Urk choirs sing
on Ascension Day
May - Urkerdag, the Saturday before Pentecost in and
around the old village centre
May - Fishing days (even years), the
weekend after Ascension Day on and around the harbor area
May to
August - Windmill run
June - Ansjoop race, annual botter sailing
competition of Stichting Urker Botter
July - Suydersee Triathlon,
first Saturday beginning of summer holidays
July/August - Singing in
the Summer, every afternoon on weekdays during the summer holidays in
the Kerkje aan de Zee
July/August - Singing in the Summer, every
Wednesday evening during the summer holidays in the Bethel Church
August - Art on the Botermarkt, Urk artists work and exhibit in the old
village
September - Fish-Potato Run, second Saturday in September
September/October - Cake races for racing pigeons
October - Holland
Fisheries Event (even years)
November - Urk in Winterspheren, in and
around the old village centre
December - Singing in Winter
Where in Dutch folk culture babies are mainly brought by the stork,
according to a well-known Urker saga, the Urk father has to make a
rowing trip to the Ommelebommelestien (stien = stone) to pick up the
baby. This stone is located about thirty meters from the coast in the
IJsselmeer.
In one version of the saga, a stork from Egypt comes
to the stone to place the babies in it. When the baby is about to be
born, the father has to row to Schokland with the obstetrician to get
the key to the stone. After this they have to row to the
Ommelebommelestien to get the baby. Arriving at the stone, the father
had to look for the door of the stone to enter. This was not an easy
task as the door was under water.
Once the door was found, a
small price had to be paid for the baby. Traditionally one Dutch guilder
for a girl and two for a boy. When an Urker man was asked whether he had
already been to Schokland, he was actually asked whether he already had
children.