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. Looking for ideas? See also things to do in Hoofddorp.

— 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. Dating from 1867 — 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. It is one of the few buildings in the centre that still recall the pioneer years directly.

When the municipality moved to a larger town hall on the Raadhuisplein, 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 western edge of the polder, in the village of Cruquius on the Ringvaart opposite Heemstede, 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. A single giant steam cylinder drove eight balance beams of about 10,000 kg each, together lifting roughly 64 cubic metres of water per stroke. After 1912 it served as a reserve, and it was finally taken out of service in 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 deep polder as a whole was hard to flood. So the Geniedijk was built straight across it: a dike of about eleven kilometres running from Fort bij Vijfhuizen via Fort bij Hoofddorp to Fort bij Aalsmeer. Fort bij Hoofddorp originally stood outside the village but is now surrounded by the growing town. The forts have been restored and reused in recent decades; Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen, for example, is a venue for contemporary art.

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.