Stelling van Amsterdam

See file sva Stelling van Amsterdam

A city wall made of water*

The Stelling van Amsterdam was a military floodplain defensive system built for the protection of the residents of the Netherlands as a last refuge during any potential hostile invasion.

Constructed between 1874 and 1920 [initiation and completion dates variable between sources,] the 135-kilometer-long, 3-to-5 kilometer wide region surrounded the old city center at a distance of between 10 and 15 kilometers.

[name not easy to translate] hereafter refered to as SvA

On the model of earlier waterlines, most-notably the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie [an upgrade and eastward-movement of the Oude Hollandse Waterlinie.]

The first [?] important application of the tactic was near the rebel holdout of Leiden in 1574 when the residents broke dikes to protect against the domination of the Spanish

The Stelling van Amsterdam was engineered — as per the evolved technique — shallow enough to stop a flotilla, deep enough to slow an overland charge.

It was never deployed, as was neither the Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie — and yet both were militarily significant as deterent, particularly [according to one source] in 1914, helping to prevent the aggression of Germany.

* I plagiarized the term "city wall made of water" by translation, from the original "stadsmuur van water."

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