The province of Flevoland is in the Netherlands. It is the twelfth
and youngest province of the Netherlands (since January 1, 1986) and
consists of the Noordoostpolder, eastern and southern Flevoland. All
were created by draining parts of the former Zuiderzee, including the
former islands of Urk and Schokland. Most of the areas were not settled
until the 1950s. Accordingly, there are almost no "old" sights.
Flevoland is bordered by the province of Fryslân to the north and the
province of Overijssel to the north-east. It borders the Markermeer and
the IJsselmeer to the north. In the southeast the province borders on
the province of Gelderland, in the south on the provinces of Utrecht and
Noord-Holland.
The province is characterized by a lot of open
land. The capital is Lelystad, one of six municipalities in the entire
province. Cities are planned on the drawing board - often with canals
and streets according to the wishes of Dutch residents. Almere is a
satellite city of Amsterdam: many residents commute there every day via
a bridge. Therein lies the actual meaning of this province, which has
been laboriously wrested from the water: it is intended to provide
additional residential areas in the center of the Netherlands.
Actually, Flevoland would now be one polder larger - because the
Markermeer in the west of the two existing islands should also be dyked,
pumped out and made land. But the Dutch then decided against this
original plan. Land reclamation would not have been profitable, and more
water surface areas were kept for tourism and nature conservation. The
area is important for migratory birds. In the event of further drainage,
there were also fears of groundwater problems for the drained land.
In 2003, a final decision was made against draining. But since 2012,
five artificial islands have been planned in the Markermeer. The first
was completed in 2016.
The province consists of two parts:
the smaller Noordoostpolder,
which is a continuation of the mainland, and
the Flevopolder, the
largest artificial island in the world.
The Flevopolder is connected
to the mainland by bridges and linked to the Houtribdijk, a dyke between
the capital Lelystad and the city of Enkhuizen in North Holland. The
province is up to 5 meters below sea level.
With the exception of Urk, the residents of the province have come from different parts of the Netherlands. There is therefore no Flevoland dialect.
The best way to get to the Flevopolder is by car. The rail connection from Amsterdam to Hilversum has a branch that goes via Almere to Lelystad and from there via Dronten to Kampen and Zwolle. The railway does not serve the Noordoostpolder.
If you are dependent on public transport, the only option for the traveler is the bus. There has been an official cycle route in the Almere region since 2004.
Flevoland has only 48 imperial monuments, while every other province has at least a thousand. The young province doesn't have much history to offer. Instead, you take care of current leisure activities and take care of what you have, e.g. B. Urk and especially water sports.
Walibi Holland is a larger family park (formerly Six Flags Holland)
with forty attractions in Biddinghuizen (in the municipality of
Dronten).
Tulip Festival in the Noordoostpolder
From mid-April
to early May, the Tulip Festival takes place in the Noordoostpolder. in
this period is u. a. a car circuit to tuple fields is signposted. There
are also tulip markets, a tulip information center and a pick-your-own
field. Information in German from the Noordoostpolder Tourist Office:
www.vvvnoordoostpolder.nl/de/tulpen
There are no special specialties, the typical Dutch cuisine is cultivated (here in the cooking wiki). Fish is traditionally served in Urk.
Almere has the typical big city problems that also characterize Amsterdam. Otherwise, the province is considered a very quiet area.
Because large parts of Flevoland lie below sea level, cold air can collect here and cool down even further, resulting in surprisingly low minimum temperatures. The province has the reputation of a "barren and windy plain". That was also the case shortly after the impoldering, but there is hardly anything left of it in the towns and villages today. Large forests were planted and building also had a moderating influence. However, when the Markeermeer and the IJsselmeer are frozen over in winter, West Flevoland struggles with fog and low temperatures, while elsewhere it can be sunny and (much) milder.
The province is on average five meters below sea level and is made up
of
the Noordoostpolder, which adjoins the territory of the provinces
of Overijssel and Friesland,
the eastern Flevoland and
the
southern Flevoland.
Eastern and southern Flevoland form an
artificial island. In contrast to the Noordoostpolder, a narrow strip of
water was left between the polder and the mainland. This prevents the
groundwater level from sinking and gives the previous coastal towns
access to the water. Flevoland is surrounded by remnants of water that
today form long stretches of inland lakes. These remnants of the
Zuiderzee are only a few meters wide in some places and have the
character of canals there. These include the Veluwemeer, the
Drontermeer, the Gooimeer and the Ketelmeer.
Flevoland takes its name from the inland lake lacus flevo in the
eastern delta area of the Rhine, which became the Zuiderzee bay when the
sea collapsed during storm surges at the end of the 13th century. Almost
the entire current land area of the province was created after the
construction of the dyke that turned the Zuiderzee into the inland lake
IJsselmeer in 1932, by draining (new land reclamation) of parts of the
former Zuiderzee as part of the Zuiderzeewerke - a project the idea of
which dates back to 1891 .
Exceptions are the former islands of
Urk and Schokland, which have been surrounded by today's Noordoostpolder
since the "poldering". The province is characterized by wide open spaces
and planned development.
The municipality of Urk initially
belonged to the province of North Holland. In 1950 she moved to the
province of Overijssel after the Northeast Polder was completed. At this
point in time, the formation of a new, twelfth province of the
Netherlands was already planned under the name of Flevoland, which
should offer 300,000 inhabitants a place to live. The planned provincial
capital should be called Flevostad. The municipality of Noordoostpolder
was formed in 1962 in the area of the Northeast Polder. It was initially
assigned to the province of Overijssel. However, the future provincial
capital, created in 1967, was given the name Lelystad.
The areas
on the southern IJsselmeer polder initially belonged to the public body
Southern IJsselmeer polders. As a result of the formation of
communities, the area of the corporation became smaller and smaller.
The following congregations broke away from the corporation:
Dronten in 1972
Lelystad in 1980
Almere in 1984
Zeewolde in
1984
Finally, with effect from 1 January 1986, the province of
Flevoland was formed, which from that date included all of the
municipalities listed above.
Flevoland is divided into six municipalities: Lelystad, Almere, Dronten, Noordoostpolder, Urk and Zeewolde. The population was 444,850 (January 1, 2023). The average age of the population is below the Dutch average. In 2008, Flevoland was the region with the highest birth rate in Europe, not least because of the large influx of young families at the time.
The Provincial Parliament (Dutch Provinciale Staten) has its seat in
the Provinciehuis in the provincial capital of Lelystad. According to
the population in the province, the parliament consists of 41 seats.
In the provincial elections on March 20, 2019, the parties obtained
the following vote shares: FvD 17.79% (8 seats), VVD 13.17% (6 seats),
PVV 9.27% (4 seats), GroenLinks 8.53% ( 4 seats), CDA 8.31% (3 seats),
PvdA 8.21% (3 seats), ChristenUnie 7.03% (3 seats), SP 5.83% (2 seats),
50PLUS 4.93% ( 2 seats), D66 4.89% (2 seats), PvdD 4.38% (2 seats), SGP
3.84% (1 seat), DENK 2.09% (1 seat), other 1.72%.
The next
provincial election will take place on March 22, 2023.
At the
head of the province is the king's commissioner. Since November 2008,
this has been Leen Verbeek, a social democrat. The college van
Gedeputeerde Staten, i.e. the government, has been formed since 2019 by
a coalition of right-wing liberals, Greens, Christian Democrats, social
democrats, Calvinists and left-liberals.
In 2011, the regional gross domestic product per inhabitant,
expressed in purchasing power standards, was 94.31% of the EU-28
average. In 2017, the unemployment rate was 5.7%.
The province is
connected by the Dutch motorway A 6 from Amsterdam via Almere and
Lelystad to Emmeloord, by the Provinciale route 302
(Enkhuizen–(Markermeer)–Lelystad–Harderwijk) and the Provinciale route N
307 and N 309 via Dronten and Kampen to Zwolle connected to the highway
network.
The Weesp–Lelystad railway line connects Lelystad to
Amsterdam via Almere and Weesp.
Lelystad Airport is of more
regional importance and is located south of the city of the same name.
The medium wave transmitter Flevo and the short wave transmitter Flevo
are located in the municipality of Zeewolde in the south of the
province.
The province has three hospitals.