Chapter 03 · Places to see

Attractions in Hoofddorp.

Hoofddorp itself is young, but the polder around it is rich in places that tell the story of the landscape — from monumental steam pumping stations to historic forts and the old town hall at the heart of the centre.

— 01

Het Oude Raadhuis (the Old Town Hall)

On the corner of the Hoofdweg, a short walk from the central crossing, stands Het Oude Raadhuis. Opened in 1866 — less than fifteen years after the lake had been pumped dry — it served for a long time as the town hall of the new municipality. The white facade, the clock tower and the symmetrical layout make it the most important historic building in Hoofddorp.

When the municipality moved to a new, larger town hall in the 1980s, the Old Town Hall took on a second life as a cultural venue. Concerts, theatre, lectures and exhibitions are staged there today. For the town it serves as a kind of anchor: a reminder of the pioneer years of the polder, in the middle of a centre that is otherwise almost entirely modern.

— 02

Museum De Cruquius

On the southern edge of the polder, where the Ringvaart canal meets the old shore, stands De Cruquius — one of the three steam pumping stations that drained the Haarlemmermeer. It was named after the cartographer Nicolaas Kruik (Nicolaus Cruquius), who had carefully surveyed the lake with depth soundings back in 1742.

De Cruquius was, when it came into service in 1849, the largest steam engine in the world. Eight huge pistons driven by a beam of seventeen metres lifted roughly 65 cubic metres of water per stroke. The machine remained in service until 1933 and has since been preserved as a museum — a national monument bringing the history of Dutch water management to life.

— 03

The Defence Line of Amsterdam

Around Hoofddorp runs the Defence Line of Amsterdam (Stelling van Amsterdam), a 135-kilometre defensive ring built between 1880 and 1914 to protect the capital in wartime by flooding the surrounding land. The Line has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1996.

The Haarlemmermeer polder was strategically important: without measures it could not be flooded easily, as the deeply sunken polder required far too much water. To compensate, forts were built along the polder edge to seal the route to Amsterdam. Around Hoofddorp these include the Fort bij Hoofddorp and the forts at Vijfhuizen and Aalsmeer. In recent decades they have been restored and reused as studios, exhibition spaces, meeting places and walking destinations.

A heritage in the landscape

For landscape lovers, the Line is interesting above all as a spatial composition. The forts lie in a wide arc around Amsterdam, each at precisely the right distance to cover its neighbours' fields of fire. Between the forts, open landscape has been deliberately preserved — a sightline that had to stay unbuilt. The wide views across the polder around Hoofddorp owe much to a military plan from a century and a half ago.

— 04

The polder landscape itself

Arguably Hoofddorp's greatest attraction is the landscape that surrounds it.

Canals

The Hoofdvaart

The central axis of the polder runs dead-straight through Hoofddorp. The oldest ribbon development followed it; the banks are still pleasant to walk and cycle.

Dykes

The Ringdijk

The dyke around the polder is older than the polder itself — built in the 1840s to enable pumping. Today it is a popular cycling and walking route with views across the surrounding land.

Plots

The geometry

From above — or from a high vantage point — the polder's design is immediately legible: a chessboard of rectangular plots, canals and roads. A feat of nineteenth-century planning.

— 05

On the map

The principal attractions in and around Hoofddorp, on one map.