Fort Hemeltje, Houten, Netherlands

Fort het Hemeltje was built between 1877-1881 as part of the so-called Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie(The 'New Dutch Water Line') to defend the cities of the western Netherlands from overland attack.

Castles and fortifications in Netherlands

User Reviews

Roelof Schaap (8 months ago)
Very nice and beautiful place between the highways. You can walk a nice route that takes you past all points of the fort. Search for codes along the way and discover the history of the fort. There are picnic benches, catering and meeting / conference rooms in the main building. Beautiful place and well worth a visit

peter de klein (8 months ago)
Fantastic to walk there. Some courses open and nice view.

Mayke Vaarwerk (12 months ago)
Nice for when you are in the area. Not worth traversing half the country. I was there on a beautiful autumn day, not seen another visitor so it was an adventure in the dark corridors of the fort!

J. Van Berkel (14 months ago)
Not enough to make the ride

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Roman Walls of Lugo are an exceptional architectural, archaeological and constructive legacy of Roman engineering, dating from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. The Walls are built of internal and external stone facings of slate with some granite, with a core filling of a conglomerate of slate slabs and worked stone pieces from Roman buildings, interlocked with lime mortar.

Their total length of 2117 m in the shape of an oblong rectangle occupies an area of 1.68 ha. Their height varies between 8 and 10 m, with a width of 4.2 m, reaching 7 m in some specific points. The walls still contain 85 external towers, 10 gates (five of which are original and five that were opened in modern times), four staircases and two ramps providing access to the walkway along the top of the walls, one of which is internal and the other external. Each tower contained access stairs leading from the intervallum to the wall walk of town wall, of which a total of 21 have been discovered to date.

The defences of Lugo are the most complete and best preserved example of Roman military architecture in the Western Roman Empire.

Despite the renovation work carried out, the walls conserve their original layout and the construction features associated with their defensive purpose, with walls, battlements, towers, fortifications, both modern and original gates and stairways, and a moat.

Since they were built, the walls have defined the layout and growth of the city, which was declared a Historical-Artistic Ensemble in 1973, forming a part of it and becoming an emblematic structure that can be freely accessed to walk along. The local inhabitants and visitors alike have used them as an area for enjoyment and as a part of urban life for centuries.

The fortifications were added to UNESCO"s World Heritage List in late 2000 and are a popular tourist attraction.

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