Fort Bourtange

Fort Bourtange sits in the far south-east of Groningen, a star fort finished in 1593 on the orders of William the Silent. Its purpose was narrow and specific: to hold the single road running through the marshes between Germany and Spanish-held Groningen during the Eighty Years’ War, with a ring of canals and lakes serving as moats. It saw its last fighting in 1672, stayed in the border defences until 1851, and was then let go and lived in as an ordinary village. Restoration from the 1960s returned it to its seventeenth-century plan, and it now works as an open-air museum.