The Dutch Canals

About the Dutch Canals
Dutch Canals Ports
Visit Ghent on your Dutch Waterways river cruise

UNESCO World Heritage Sites along the Dutch Canals

Along the Dutch Canals and nearby you can find these amazing UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Visits to some may be included in your river cruise itinerary, but some may require some creative travel planning by your River Cruise Artist in order to visit.  Learn more below about these UNESCO Sites and the history you can experience when you visit them. Let River Cruise Your Way take you away to the history around the Dutch Canals.

Droogmakerij De Beemster (Beemster Polder)

The Beemster Polder which dates from the early 17th century is a quintessential example of reclaimed land in the Netherlands. Its orderly and structured landscape of fields, roads, canals, dykes and settlements, have been preserved mostly intact. There is historical evidence that the Polder was laid out using both classical and Renaissance planning principles.

Defense Line of Amsterdam

Extending more than 80 miles around Amsterdam, the defense line was built between 188 and 1920. It is the only known example of a protection fortification that was based on the principle of controlling water. From the 16th century, the people of the Netherlands have used their intrinsic knowledge of and experience in hydraulic engineering for the purpose of defense. The center of The Netherlands was once protected by a network of 45 armed forts, that supported the defense technique using temporary flooding from polders and a thorough system of locks and canals.

17th Century Canal Ring Area of Amsterdam inside the Singelgracht

The historic and vibrant canal district of Amsterdam was a new port city completed at beginning of the 17th century. The city consists of a network of canals extending in rings outward from the historic old town and the medieval port. This long-term project involved extending the city by draining the swampland, using a system of canals in arcs and filling in the intermediate spaces. These spaces allowed the development of an urban district featuring gabled houses and numerous monuments. This urban extension was the largest of its time. It was a world model of large-scale urban planning and served as a reference until the 19th century. Amsterdam is often the point of embarkation and disembarkation for the Dutch canal cruises.

Rietveld Schröderhuis (Rietveld Schröder House)

In Utrecht find the Rietveld Schröder House. Initially concepted by Truus Schröder-Schräder and designed by architect Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, it was built in 1924. This small single-family home has an interior with a flexible arrangement and visual qualities that was a emblematic of the ideals of the De Stijl group of artists and architects in the Netherlands in the 1920s. This style has since been considered one of the icons of the Modern Movement in architecture. Fans of modernist architecture may find this World Heritage site worthy of a visit on your river cruise stop in Utrecht.

Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout

The Dutch people have contributed richly to the technology of managing water which is demonstrated by the network of water-management techniques in the Kinderdijk-Elshout area. The construction of hydraulic stations to aid the drainage of land for agriculture and settlement started in the Middle Ages and have persisted through present day. Kinderdijk illustrates all the features that are associated with this evolving technology – dykes, reservoirs, pumping stations, administrative buildings and a series of historic but well-preserved windmills. Kinderdijk will surely be a favorite stop on your river cruise tour of the canals of The Netherlands.

Van Nellefabriek

Van Nellefabriek was built in the 1920s along a canal in the Spaanse Polder industrial zone north of Rotterdam. Van Nellefabriek is one of the icons of 20th-century industrial architecture with a complex of factories whose façades are fully made of steel and glass, making use of the curtain wall principle. It was conceived as an ‘ideal factory’ in which daylight was used to provide better working conditions. It became a symbol of the modernist and functionalist culture 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.

Historic Centre of Brugge

Brugge, Belgium is a wonderful example of a medieval historic town that has managed to maintain its historic fabric through the centuries. Original Gothic buildings form part of the town’s identity. As one of the commercial and cultural capitals of Europe with its important location along canals near the North Sea, Brugge was able to develop cultural links to different parts of the world. Brugges is often an excursion offered on river cruise ships that are touring the Dutch and Belgian canals.

Your Dutch Waterways Cruise Awaits!

Are you ready to start planning your Dutch Waterways Cruise Vacation Your Way? A River Cruise Artist at River Cruise Your Way is ready to be your vacation concierge. Contact us today at 1-800-259-7612 or use the form below and let us know when it is most convenient to call you, we will confirm via e-mail, and then reach out at the agreed upon time and date.