Bart Schultz
I recently visited the area during an excursion of the Water Heritage Network. Some online research also yielded some interesting information, particularly the report on the archaeological desk study for the Environmental Impact Assessment of the reinforcement of the dike from Hoorn to Amsterdam. This report refers to the drowned, or washed-away, village of Etersheim. Archaeological findings from this village, including the church, were discovered outside the dike along the Etersheimerbraak. It is stated that this event must have occurred before 1418.
Dike breaches have occurred many times in the past in the Netherlands. This was certainly the case around the former Zuiderzee. Consider, for example, the flood of 1825, which has been commemorated in 2025, and the flood of 1916, which was decisive in the approval to implement the Zuiderzee project.
An erosion that occurred behind a dike breach can have various names in the Dutch language, such as: braak, breek, waal, weel, and wiel. The lakes created by several of these breaches were later drained. Besides the Etersheimerbraak, the following drained lakes can be mentioned: the Braakpolder near Hoogwoud, the Braakpolder near Winkel, Braken near Obdam, the Heintjesbraak, the Noordeinderbraak or Achterwaal, the Schoutsbraakje, the Zandbraak near Warder, the Zuiderbraak, the Wilmkebreek, the Bedijkte Leek or Kleine Waal, the Bedijkte Waal, the Grote Waal, the Kleine Waal, the Zwartewaal, the Lutjebroekerweel, the Weel near Obdam, the Weelpolder near Hoogwoud, the Grote Wiel, and the Houtwiel.
Initially, the Etersheimerbraak was drained by a windmill, which discharged the excess water into the Polder Zeevang. The windmill burned down in 1882, and the new one did the same in 1886. The pumping out by the newly installed windmill was taken over by an electric pumping station in 1920.
After the 1916 storm disaster, during which the Zuiderzee dike of the Etersheimerbraak had held, it was decided to raise it anyway. Clay was excavated within the Etersheimerbraak for this purpose, resulting in the deepest part, called De Kleiput, now the lowest point in North Holland, with a polder water level of 6.63 metres below NAP (Normal Amsterdam Ordnance Datum). This is slightly higher than the lowest point in the Netherlands. That point is located in the Zuidplaspolder east of Rotterdam, where, at 6.76 metres below NAP, the lowest point of the Netherlands is located, with a winter water level of 7.10 metres below NAP, as I described in an earlier contribution to Flevolands Geheugen about the Lammefjordpolder and the Zuidplaspolder, the deepest polders in Europe.
After being replaced by the electric pumping station, the windmill fell into disrepair, but has since been renovated and, since 2005, has been suitable for pumping out again, and is open to visitors. Since then, the windmill has again been providing discharge from the Etersheimbraak to the Zeevang, while De Kleiput is drained by a separate pumping station to the higher part of the Etersheimerbraak.
It is also interesting to note that at the beginning of Etersheimerbraakweg is a small school and a teacher's house, where teacher Cornelis Joh. Kieviet wrote his first book about Dik Trom. The building now houses a Children's Book Museum. In 2024, the windmill was used as the backdrop for Joost Klein's music video for his song "Europapa" for the European Song Contest, which he ultimately didn't get to sing in the final. Near the windmill is a visitor centre and an Archaeological Mini museum, aptly named De Waterwolf.
