NETHERLANDS - Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout

 Postcard sent by Wim de Mol in a direct swap.

Sent 17/09/2018.

INSCRIPTION/INSCRITO: 1995

Schokland was a peninsula that by the 15th century had become an island. Occupied and then abandoned as the sea encroached, it had to be evacuated in 1859. But following the draining of the Zuider Zee, it has, since the 1940s, formed part of the land reclaimed from the sea. Schokland has vestiges of human habitation going back to prehistoric times. It symbolizes the heroic, age-old struggle of the people of the Netherlands against the encroachment of the waters.The struggle of the people of the Netherlands against water has endured, for more than six thousand years, and still continues today; without constant vigilance, more than half the present area of the country would be entirely submerged or subject to periodic inundation. Schokland was a peninsula that by the fifteenth century had become an island. Occupied and then abandoned as the sea encroached, it had to be evacuated in 1859. Following the impoldering of the Zuider Zee, however, it has formed part of the land reclaimed from the sea since the 1940s. Schokland has vestiges of human habitation going back to prehistoric times. It symbolizes the heroic, age-old struggle of the people of the Netherlands against the encroachment of the water. As a result of the colossal reclamation programme that began in the early years of the 20th century, Schokland and the settlement mounds and other human interventions that surround it stand as mute testimony to the skill and fortitude of the Dutch people in the face of this never-ceasing natural threat.

Thank you for this beautiful card, Wim de Mol. Amazing, as always!

NETHERLANDS - Schokland and Surroundings

 Postcard sent by Wim de Mol in a direct swap.

Sent 07/09/2016.

INSCRIPTION/INSCRITO: 1995

Schokland was a peninsula that by the 15th century had become an island. Occupied and then abandoned as the sea encroached, it had to be evacuated in 1859. But following the draining of the Zuider Zee, it has, since the 1940s, formed part of the land reclaimed from the sea. Schokland has vestiges of human habitation going back to prehistoric times. It symbolizes the heroic, age-old struggle of the people of the Netherlands against the encroachment of the waters.

The struggle of the people of the Netherlands against water has endured, for more than six thousand years, and still continues today; without constant vigilance, more than half the present area of the country would be entirely submerged or subject to periodic inundation. Schokland was a peninsula that by the fifteenth century had become an island. Occupied and then abandoned as the sea encroached, it had to be evacuated in 1859. Following the impoldering of the Zuider Zee, however, it has formed part of the land reclaimed from the sea since the 1940s. Schokland has vestiges of human habitation going back to prehistoric times. It symbolizes the heroic, age-old struggle of the people of the Netherlands against the encroachment of the water. As a result of the colossal reclamation programme that began in the early years of the 20th century, Schokland and the settlement mounds and other human interventions that surround it stand as mute testimony to the skill and fortitude of the Dutch people in the face of this never-ceasing natural threat.

Thank you for this amazing card, Wim de Mol!

NETHERLANDS - Ir.D.F. Woudagemaal (D.F. Wouda Steam Pumping Station)

Postal enviada por Mike por un Direct swap a cambio de una UNESCO de Marruecos.

Envío - 22 de Octubre del 2017.

INSCRIPTION/INSCRITO: 1998

The Wouda Pumping Station at Lemmer in the province of Friesland opened in 1920. It is the largest steam-pumping station ever built and is still in operation. It represents the high point of the contribution made by Netherlands engineers and architects in protecting their people and land against the natural forces of water.

Situada en Lemmer (provincia de Frisia), la estación de bombeo de Wouda entró en servicio en 1920. Es la mayor del mundo de las que funcionan a vapor y sigue en actividad hoy en día. Constituye la máxima contribución de los ingenieros y arquitectos holandeses a la protección de la población y el suelo contra la fuerza natural del agua.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/867

Thanks for this awesome car Mike!

NETHERLANDS - Seventeenth-Century Canal Ring Area of Amsterdam inside the Singelgracht

Postal enviada por Mike en un Direct swap.

Envío - 04 de Noviembre del 2017

INSCRIPTION/INSCRITO: 2010

The historic urban ensemble of the canal district of Amsterdam was a project for a new ‘port city’ built at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries. It comprises a network of canals to the west and south of the historic old town and the medieval port that encircled the old town and was accompanied by the repositioning inland of the city’s fortified boundaries, the Singelgracht. This was a long-term programme that involved extending the city by draining the swampland, using a system of canals in concentric arcs and filling in the intermediate spaces. These spaces allowed the development of a homogeneous urban ensemble including gabled houses and numerous monuments. This urban extension was the largest and most homogeneous of its time. It was a model of large-scale town planning, and served as a reference throughout the world until the 19th century.

El conjunto urbano histórico del barrio de los canales de Ámsterdam es fruto del proyecto de construcción de una nueva “ciudad-puerto”, que se llevó a cabo a finales del siglo XVI y a lo largo del siglo XVII. Se creó una red de canales que rodeaba el antiguo centro histórico y medieval de la ciudad y que se fue extendiendo hasta el canal de Singelracht, a medida que las fortificaciones de la ciudad se iban desplazando tierra adentro. Ese proyecto de larga duración amplió la superficie de la ciudad, drenando las marismas con canales trazados en arcos concéntricos y terraplenando los intervalos entre ellos. Los espacios así creados permitieron crear un conjunto urbanístico homogéneo constituido por numerosos monumentos y casas con aguilones. Esta ampliación urbana fue la de mayor envergadura y homogeneidad de su época. El sitio constituye un ejemplo de planificación urbanística a gran escala que sirvió de modelo arquitectónico de referencia en el mundo entero hasta el siglo XIX.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1349

Thanks for this awesome card Mike, I love it!

NETHERLANDS - Van Nellefabriek

Postal enviada por Mike.

Envío - 22 de Octubre del 2016.

INSCRIPTION/INSCRITO: 2014

Van Nellefabriek was designed and built in the 1920s on the banks of a canal in the Spaanse Polder industrial zone north-west of Rotterdam. The site is one of the icons of 20th-century industrial architecture, comprising a complex of factories, with façades consisting essentially of steel and glass, making large-scale use of the curtain wall principle. It was conceived as an ‘ideal factory’, open to the outside world, whose interior working spaces evolved according to need, and in which daylight was used to provide pleasant working conditions. It embodies the new kind of factory that became a symbol of the modernist and functionalist culture of the inter-war period and bears witness to the long commercial and industrial history of the Netherlands in the field of importation and processing of food products from tropical countries, and their industrial processing for marketing in Europe.

Diseñada y construida en el decenio de 1920, a orillas de un canal de la zona industrial del pólder de Spaanse situada al noroeste de Rotterdam, la factoría Van Nelle es una obra emblemática de la arquitectura industrial del siglo XX. Comprende un conjunto de talleres con fachadas de cristal y acero principalmente, construidas con arreglo al sistema arquitectónico del muro cortina. El edificio se concibió como una “fábrica ideal” abierta al mundo exterior, de tal forma que la luz del día penetrara en ella para proporcionar condiciones laborales agradables y que los espacios interiores pudieran adaptarse a la evolución de las necesidades de producción. Esta construcción encarna el nuevo tipo de fábrica que llegó a convertirse en un símbolo de la cultura modernista y funcional del periodo de entreguerras, y además constituye un testimonio de la larga historia mercantil e industrial de los Países Bajos en el ámbito de la importación de productos alimentarios procedentes de los países tropicales, de su elaboración industrial y de su comercialización en el continente europeo.

Thanks Mike for the awesome postcar! I love how the image is also on the reverse.