Urk
Municipality
Current town and former island of Urk
Flag Coat of arms
Location in Flevoland
Urk Show map of Flevoland Urk Show map of Netherlands
Coordinates: 52°40′N 5°36′E / 52.667°N 5.600°E / 52.667; 5.600
Country	Netherlands
Province	Flevoland
Government [1]
• Body	Municipal council
• Mayor	Cees van den Bos (SGP)
Area [2]
• Total	111.86 km2 (43.19 sq mi)
• Land	13.15 km2 (5.08 sq mi)
• Water	98.71 km2 (38.11 sq mi)
Elevation [3]	0 m (0 ft)
Population  (January 2021)[4]
• Total	21,227
• Density	1,614/km2 (4,180/sq mi)
Demonym	Urker
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postcode	8320–8324
Area code	0527
Website	www.urk.nl

Dutch topographic map of the municipality of Urk, June 2015

Urk (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈʏr(ə)k] ^ⓘ) is a municipality and a town in the Flevoland province in the central Netherlands.

Urk is first mentioned in historical records dating to the 10th century, when it was still an island in the Almere, an inland sea that would become part of the Zuiderzee in the 13th century after a series of incursions by the North Sea. In 1939, a dike from the mainland to Urk ended the town's island status, just as the Afsluitdijk project was changing the salt water Zuiderzee surrounding Urk to the less saline IJsselmeer. Later in the 20th century, seabed areas surrounding Urk were reclaimed from the sea to become the Noordoostpolder.

The mainstay of the town's formal economy has always been fishing, and the products of the sea coming in through Urk harbor continue to be exported widely, although today Urk's fishing boats must travel greater distances to gather them than was required in most historical periods. Religious life has traditionally been very important to Urk's inhabitants, with active, conservative congregations of the Dutch Reformed denominations playing key roles in the life of the community.

Geography

Towards the north, the IJsselmeer is enclosed by an arc of boulder clay high areas of land which formed during an ice age glaciations of the Pleistocene epoch: Texel, Wieringen, Urk, de Voorst, and Gaasterland. To the south of that arc a lake formed as a result of meltwater, which became known as Almere. North of the boulder clay highland of Urk, the Vecht river flowed into the Almere, while the river IJssel with tributaries flowed into the south of Urk. As the climate became warmer during the Middle Ages, the sea level rose whilst the surrounding areas have been slowly steadily sinking because of forebulge effect since the end of the Ice Age. During the 13th century (and especially after a large storm in 1282) the Zuiderzee formed, and the water round Urk suddenly became a tidal sea. Because there was no sea defense, over time large pieces of the island eroded. The southwest side of Urk, which rose perpendicularly out of the sea, was called het Hoge Klif ("the High Cliff"). Around 1700 the municipality of Amsterdam donated sea defenses to Urk. The town contains the highest point in the province of Flevoland.

History

Urk Island (1852)

Aerial photograph of the former island Urk, before its integration in the Noordoostpolder, 1920–1940. Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie.

Aerial photograph of the former island Urk, 1920–1940. Nederlands Instituut voor Militaire Historie.

The oldest instance of the name "Urk" is a donation certificate of 966 from Holy Roman Emperor Otto I to the Sint Pantaleonsklooster monastery in Cologne. The text reads: cuiisdam insulae medietatem in Almere, que Urch vocatur (Latin: "of a certain island in the middle of Almere, which is called Urch"). Until 1475 the High and Low Lordship of Urk and Emmeloord (the most northern village of Schokland) was in the hands of the Van Kuinre family. From 1475 to 1614, the Zoudenbalch family of Utrecht were Lords of Urk and Emmeloord. From 1614 to 1660, Urk and Emmeloord were ruled by the van der Werve from Antwerp. From 1660 to 1792 Urk and Emmeloord belonged to the municipality of Amsterdam, and ruled from 1660 to 1672 by Andries de Graeff. From 1792 to 1950 Urk belonged to the province of North Holland.

After World War II, Urk ceased to be an island, and Urk's town expanded into the reclaimed land of the polder. Many Urkers who previously left the town because of overcrowding before the polder reclamation was completed were able to return to Urk. From 1950 to 1986 Urk belonged to the province of Overijssel. Since 1986, Urk has belonged to the province of Flevoland.

The Noordoostpolder in its early years had an alternative name "Urker Land," from which Urk's newspaper, Het Urkerland, gets its name.

Economy

The quay of Urk

The important economic pillar of the village remains fishery. After the IJsselmeer was formed, the Urkers moved their fishing operations to the North Sea. Additionally, Urk is focused on making a connection between the existing economy and new activities such as tourism, social care, maritime industry and services. The local council is keen to particularly promote tourism, retail and fisheries. In the past, many lives were lost in storms on the Zuiderzee and North Sea. There is a memorial to lost fishermen on Urk, popularly known as the Urker vrouw: a statue of a woman looking out to sea, vainly awaiting the return of her husband and sons.

Politics

Dialect

One of the oldest and most distinctive dialects of Dutch is the language spoken in Urk. Nearly everyone in the village speaks this dialect and uses it in daily life. The dialect deviates considerably from contemporary standard Dutch and has preserved many old characteristics that disappeared from standard Dutch a long time ago. The Urkish dialect also includes elements that are older than standard Dutch and were never part of the standard language. For example, the old word for "father" in the Urkish dialect is taote. The dialect developed this way because until World War II, Urk was an island and could be reached only by boat. Radio was unknown, and the poor population did not have much money for newspapers and books. Until the modern era, primary education for the children typically lasted only two years; afterwards children had to help maintain the family, and formal schooling ended.

Linguistic classifications have assigned "the dialect of Urk" or "Urk" into an own dialect group.^[7]

The Urkish dialect has more vowel sounds than standard Dutch and each vowel has short and long forms. The pronunciation of vowels deviates from standard Dutch and is closer to English.

Because living conditions in Urk in historical times were very poor, young girls (typically about age 11 or 12) would frequently leave the island to become domestic servants, mostly in or around Amsterdam. They often served with Jewish families. After a few years, they would return to Urk to form families of their own. As a result of this practice, the Urkish dialect absorbed some loanwords from the Amsterdam dialect and also from Yiddish. For instance, the Yiddish "Shnur" for "sister-in-law" became the Urkish "Snoar" (identical meaning); the Hebrew "Kallah" (כלה‎) for "bride" became the Urkish "Kalletjen", meaning "girlfriend" (literally "little bride").

When Napoleon occupied the Netherlands, many French words were incorporated into both standard Dutch and Urkish. Just as for standard Dutch, French words often changed form when incorporated into Urkish. The Urkish dialect has always been primarily a spoken language, and there are not many old texts written in the dialect. Only in recent years have people begun to write prose and poetry in the Urkish dialect. There are Urkers who have translated Bible books into Urkish, such as the book of Psalms.

Urk is no longer an island and exposure to the standard Dutch through the media is widespread. However, the distinctive Urkish dialect is still alive.

Notable people

• A.C. Baantjer (1923 in Urk – 2010) a Dutch author of detective fiction and police officer
• Geert Nentjes, (born 1998), professional darts player, lives in Urk
• Jan Ras (born 1999 in Urk) a Dutch footballer who plays for SC Heerenveen
• Dick Schutte (born 1947 in Wilsum) a former Dutch politician, Mayor of Urk from 1999 to 2005
• Adri van Heteren (born 1951) a Dutch Christian minister in Urk

Folktales

Urk and the arts

The prolific Dutch writer Albert Cornelis Baantjer was born here. Baantjer is mainly known for his large series of detective novels revolving around police inspector De Cock and his side-kick, sergeant Vledder.

Writer Jef Last lived on Urk for several years from 1932 onwards. He wrote several articles about Urk for one of the most progressive Dutch magazines, 'De Groene Amsterdammer'. While living here, he fell in love with a fisherman, and was inspired to write Zuiderzee.^[8] This novel deals with the love between two fishermen living on Urk and was one of the first, if not the first novel in Dutch literature to openly deal with homosexuality.

The Dutch writer, painter and resistance hero Willem Arondeus spent some time on Urk from 1920. While residing on Urk, during 1922, he wrote 'Afzijdige Strofen', a collection of twenty homo-erotic poems which were posthumously published in 2001.

Demographics

Year 2018:

• Birth Rate: 20.3 per 1000
• Death Rate: 3.24 per 1000
• NGR: +1.90% per year.^[10]

The birth rate of the municipality of Urk is the highest in the Netherlands as of 2016 (and highest in previous years). But like many other places in the Netherlands this number declined to 18.7% (down from 30.8% in 1988). In 1988 only Zeewolde had a slightly higher birth rate at 31.3%, but the birth rate Urk remained the second highest. The total fertility rate declined to 2.6 (down from 3.9 in 1988).

Rail Links

Urk has no railway station but the nearest stations are Kampen, Dronten and Lelystad, each approximately 30 kilometres (19 miles) away. This makes Urk one of the most isolated places in the Netherlands as far as railway connections are concerned.

See also

• Urk Lighthouse
• Marken
• Louise Kaiser, Urk language researcher

References

External links

• Media related to Urk at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website
• Local news site
• Local lifeboat station