During the 16-18th centuries De Rijp flourished as an important fishing centre. It was home to wealthy merchants and ship owners, and an important centre for herring and whale and associated industries such as the manufacture of rope, twine, whale oil, and whalebone. It was also the birthplace of Jan Adriaanzoon Leeghwater, who was responsible for planning many of the land reclamation projects for which Holland is famous; and it is reputedly the birthplace of another enterprising Dutchman, Jan Janse Weltevree, who spent many years at the court of Korea in the 17th century.
Tags: KAP De Rijp Eilandspolder Schermer
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Although the village is about 20 minutes inland from the North Sea coast, and about the same distance inland from the Ijsselmeer - the former Zuiderzee - it used to be an important fishing community. De Rijp was home to countless fishermen who went out for herring and, even more surprisingly, for whale. Boats setting out from De Rijp could easily reach the open sea through the adjoining Beemster lake, which was connected to the Zuiderzee, or join up with the whaling fleet at Enkhuizen.
Herring and whale both feature on the coat of arms created for Graft-De Rijp when the villages of De Rijp and Graft were officially combined in 1970. Those coins in the top right quadrant, by the way, are supposed to represent the village fund for paying out ransom money to local fishermen who had the misfortune to be captured by pirates.
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A local lad - Jan Adriaanzoon Leeghwater (1575-1650) - worked out a means of turning water into land. Leeghwater, who was born in De Rijp, was responsible for planning the reclamation of the Beemster and Schermer lakes, and contributed to many other engineering feats both in Holland and abroad. The reclamation did not cut De Rijp off from the sea, or bring its involvement in whaling to an end, as many suppose. There were a good many Rijper whalers and whaling boats right through to the end of the 18th century. It did however bring to a halt the inland fishing industry on which many locals depended.
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After World War II De Rijp became increasingly a commuter village, its inhabitants travelling daily to and from the new industrial areas in the Zaan region and North Amsterdam. In the early 1960's De Rijp embarked on the first part of an ambitious rebuilding plan with the aim of providing housing for 15,000-20,000 inhabitants, but which would have involved destroying some of the old neighbourhoods (some of which were admittedly pretty run-down by that time).
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The old historic centre of De Rijp was rescued just in time from being engulfed in a typical modern commuter zone. A local action group calling itself "Save De Rijp" successfully resisted this plan, proposing instead that the village centre should be restored to its former glory and that further new building should be limited to providing homes for a maximum of 8,000 inhabitants by the year 2000. After much lobbying, De Rijp was declared by the national Government to be a protected village monument.
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