The Dead Cities of the Zuyder Zee

The great cataclysm which produced the Zuyder Zee in the thirteenth century destroyed Lake Flevo, upon whose shores commercial cities had sprung up. These cities, when the lake was destroyed, were left inland. Commerce failed, and business men sought homes elsewhere. As regards houses and streets, the cities remain intact, but the life has departed. Hence the sobriquet--"The Dead Cities of the Zuyder Zee."

Amsterdam is a boundary mark between North and South Holland. South of it civilization increases, while to the north, in the neighborhood of "the dead cities," one feels as far from civilization as though landed upon a South Sea island.

The quaint and primitive town of Zaandam, "beyond the dam," in its prosperous days was a town of 12,000 inhabitants, intersected by numerous canals, and the centre of large shipbuilding operations. Holland was then "the King of the Seas," and hither came Peter the Great, Czar of all the Russias, to learn the trade of shipbuilding, in 1697. He worked incognito, under the registered name Peter Michaelhoff. He lived by himself, preparing his own meals and doing his own washing, in a hut of two rooms. The cottage, or hut, now leans in all directions, and the floor resembles the waves of the sea. It is bare of furniture, except such as the Great Peter used, viz., a bedstead, a table and two chairs.

But the walls of this historic hut, only ten by twelve, are covered with the names of visitors from all civilized nations. Over the old-fashioned chimney a marble tablet was placed by Alexander of Russia in 1814, with the inscription: "Alexander, to Peter the Great." The whole hut is now encased in a building, erected for its preservation by a former Queen of Holland, Anna Paulovna, who was a Princess of Russia. But "Peter Michaelhoff," finding himself an object of too great curiosity at Zaandam, went to the shipyards at Amsterdam, which were enclosed by a high wall. He there completed his apprenticeship, and in off hours constructed with his own hands the model of a man-of-war, which he took with him to Russia as a model for the great Russian navy. Eighteen years after, he came back to Holland with his wife, the Czarina, to visit with her the shipyards where he had worked as a day laborer, and had lived upon his pay as "Peter Michaelhoff." The anniversary of this visit is still observed at Zaandam as a holiday; and in commemoration, the name of the town is written Saardam and Czardam.

And yet with all this historic association Zaandam is one of the Dead Cities of the Zuyder Zee. It is but a small town, if even such it may be called, with its detached cabins, painted bright green, with red roofs, seen amidst scattered trees. Its canals are dry, and serve as roads; yet its cabins are said to contain china and old carved furniture fitted to delight the heart, and excite the envy of a nineteenth century antiquarian.

Its four hundred windmills now grind flaxseed into oil, and their owners are millionaires. But desolation reigns in Zaandam; the only life is in its oil-mills, be-wildering and confusing in their turnings and twistings to the point of vertigo.

Alkmaar, another of the "dead cities," is celebrated for its famous victory over the Spaniards in 1573-a victory that put fresh life into the Dutch cause, and was a turning-point in their favor. It was once a prosperous city, but is now only a well-kept village, celebrated for its cheese and wooded walks.

Broek, once the capital of North Holland, is now only "the cleanest village in the world." It is curious, interesting and clean, but the life has been washed out of it; its inhabitants seem turned to stone. The front doors of the one-story houses are never opened except for a marriage or a funeral, and the stillness of death is in its streets. Yet once across the threshold of these primitive homes, rare antique carved furniture, old china and Dutch curiosities crowd the "best room," while the curious old costumes of the few inhabitants have an enchantment all their own.

Monnikendam is another of the Dead Cities of the Zuyder Zee, and is more dead than any of the others. No living creature is to be seen along its brick-paved streets, not even a dog or a cat. Not a door nor a window of its red-painted houses, with green Venetian shutters, is open. It was once a flourishing city of commerce, one of the twenty great towns of Holland. Strangers seldom visit it now, for street after street, lined with closed houses, all seem to say, "We belong to a past age." And it is true. The few descendants that remain of the thrifty Dutch of Monnikendam care as little for the modern world as the world cares for them.

The Islands of the Zuyder Zee are as interesting as the Dead Cities, especially the Island of Marken. This island was detached from the mainland in the thirteenth century. The habits, manners, dress and customs of the people remain exactly as they were six hundred years ago; for, with the exception of the doctor, the pastor, and the schoolmaster, all the inhabitants are natives of the island. No islander marries on the continent, and no one from the continent cares to marry "an islander."

Thus on the Island of Marken exists a small tribe or colony of people, separated only by a short extent of sea from Amsterdam, as entirely distinct as the six hundred years that have divided the island from the mainland. Nine hundred people live a quiet, regular, contented life on this Island of Marken, in the stormy Zuyder Zee. The weeks are marked only by one great event. On every Sunday night the lights burn in the windows until midnight. Then the whole population goes down in a body to the port. The men and boys embark in their fishing boats and put out to sea; the women and children return to their cabin homes and to their home occupations, until another Sunday morning brings home "the toilers of the sea." Week after week, year after year, repeats itself, but only the preordained changes of life and death take place upon the Island of Marken.

There is something deeply impressive in these Dead Cities and Islands of the Zuyder Zee-a stationary civilization on the northern boundary of a nation that first gave to Western Europe its most advanced ideas of progress, freedom in civil government, and freedom to worship God according to the individual conscience.