Volendam Shipyard Heritage

The wooden-boatbuilding tradition of Volendam, a former Zuiderzee fishing town in North Holland that built and sailed flat-bottomed botters and kwakken, sturdy craft suited to the shallow inland sea. Hundreds worked the Zuiderzee before the Afsluitdijk closed it off in 1932, ending new botter construction and the salt-water fishery. The Volendams Museum preserves boat models, fishing gear, and the town’s costume and craft heritage; restored botters still sail as heritage vessels.