News of: Tuesday, May 10 2005,
The province of Noord-Holland will invest E 9 million to restore the Stelling van Amsterdam (Defence Line of Amsterdam).
The Defence Line of Amsterdam is a circular defence around the capital Amsterdam which was built by the Ministry of War between 1880 and 1920. It consists of flooded areas (inundations) and thirty six forts, two coastal forts, two fortresses, three batteries and two coastal batteries. Additionally many more inletsluices, secondary batteries and depots were constructed.
Although set up for military reasons, the fortresses and other constructions were never used for defence.
The Unesco placed the Defence line on the World Heritage list. The list of Dutch World heritage sites can be found here.
The province of North Holland (of which Amsterdam is a part) wants to create a visitor centre and walking and cycling routes.
