Tijdschrift voor Historische Geografie - Volume 9, Issue 4, 2024

The valuable landscape of Ravenswaarden. Experience and valuation in a landscape historical study

The Ravenswaarden (waarden are floodplains but the word waarden also means values) are situated in a relatively young floodplain landscape, formed after the breakthrough of the river IJssel in the early Middle Ages around 550 ad. Due to lateral displacement of the IJssel, the Ravenswaarden are made up of meander-valley ridges and gullies. Therefore, the Ravenswaarden are a relief-rich landscape. The Ravenswaarden were common property of the Marke Gorssel and had an important function in farming life. The narrow-elongated plots were bordered with hawthorn hedges. With the arrival of barbed wire in the 20th century, among other things, many hawthorn hedges disappeared from the Ravenswaarden landscape. Today, the historical developments of the Ravenswaarden are still visible. The Ravenswaarden landscape was examined using a landscape experience survey and a validation survey. From a scientific perspective, the Ravenswaarden score well on recall, preservation and representativeness. From the residents’ perspective, the Ravenswaarden are mainly experienced as a beautiful, vast, open and old agricultural landscape.

Groningen in the 1970s and 1980s. The enduring role of ideological principles in inner city development

This article describes how Groningen aimed to find a balance between preserving historic elements and embracing innovations for the historic inner city, with its partly medieval structure and monumental buildings. After the liberation in 1945, the inner city was partly in ruins. Urban development was planned and accelerated with a focus on large-scale reconstruction and rehabilitation plans for traffic breakthroughs. In the 1970s, under influence of progressive politicians, a new approach was introduced, focusing on mixing functions and livability, with the Doelstellingennota (Objectives Memorandum) and the Verkeerscirculatieplan (Traffic Circulation Plan). Car access was restricted, while space was given back to pedestrians and cyclists, and the residential quality and livability of downtown was reintroduced and maintained. The 1980s introduced a more integrated urban planning and a stronger role for the market, focusing on the redevelopment of urban zones. Iconic projects such as the Groninger Museum and the H.N. Werkmanbrug emphasized the connection between architecture and urban planning. Contemporary plans build on these principles, paying attention to contemporary issues such as climate adaptation while preserving the human scale, so that Groningen continues to develop respectfully and innovatively.

The formation of the ‘Dordtse Kil’

Recently published authoritative maps of the paleogeography of the Netherlands in 1500 show the Dordtse Kil as a very wide waterway near the Dutch town of Dordrecht. However, around 1500 there was no waterway in that place at all. The Dordtse Kil was only dug out in 1597. This article examines what went wrong and how this region should be shown on those maps.

Can tobacco cultivation still be seen in Southeast-Utrecht? A study into the influence of centuries of tobacco cultivation on the landscape of the Southeastern Utrechtse Heuvelrug

From the 17th until the 20th century, tobacco was cultivated in the south-eastern region of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It was especially prominent in places like Amerongen, Elst and Rhenen. This article focuses on the cultivation itself, the influence on the landscape and how the traces thereof and later references to the tobacco cultivation can be seen in the current landscape. Examples are landscape elements such as dovecotes, sheepfolds, elements related to the water which was supplied to the tobacco plants, land use and soils. Toponyms and other kinds of names have also been researched. Significant differences in the presence of influences of the tobacco cultivation and heritage between Amerongen and Elst on the one hand and Rhenen on the other have been discovered. A possible explanation for this is that tobacco cultivation was more present in Amerongen and Elst than in Rhenen.