They just looked sad, the three cannons in the center of Monnickendam. That couldn’t go on any longer, thought Simon Verbeek and a few other volunteers. Certainly not because next month the 450th anniversary of the Battle of the Zuiderzee will be celebrated. They therefore started a thorough restoration, just in time for the spectacle to erupt.
Neglected guns in perfect order again for celebration of the Battle of the Zuiderzee – NH News
Verbeek points to the cannon on the Fortress he is working on. “It is a French naval gun from 1811, it has been here since 2000. Before that time it was in a different place on the harbor, on a plateau. It collapsed and then it was restored by Klaas Roos.”
The same Klaas Roos is now standing next to the gun again, frantically trying to remove one of the wheels from the undercarriage. “Of course it would be very sloppy if things were not maintained when the party starts. That does not give us a good feeling.”
Everything about the Battle of the Zuiderzee
In the run-up to the celebration of 450 years of the Battle of the Zuiderzee, NH is following the preparations in Monnickendam. We regularly publish articles and reports about the many volunteers and what they do to make the event a success. Look at here previous reports and articles.
Simon Verbeek – also a council member in Waterland – asked council questions about the guns on behalf of the local CDA. He found the answer disappointing, so he and other volunteers took up the challenge to restore them himself. And, important: to temporarily move two guns to the port. There they will function as a decor piece. The cannon on the Fortress remains. The municipality will remove overhanging branches from the trees so that the cannon will soon be clearly visible from the road.
Rose likes it that way. “If you want to have a party, the population has to support it, so it has to be built from the bottom up.” He expects the restoration to be completed next week.
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