Fortifications of Heusden

As elsewhere in the northern Netherlands, new times presented themselves in Heusden toward the end of the sixteenth century. In 1572 the town was hit by a major fire, which also damaged the medieval town hall - including the town archives. Not much later, the Catholic religion was renounced: in 1577, the city council sided with William of Orange. The monastics fled the city and the Cathar church came into Protestant hands. The strategic location of the town, on the border of Holland and Brabant, made it necessary in the early phase of the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648) to modify the defense of the walled and enclosed Heusden in order to keep Philip II's Spanish troops out of Holland. In 1578, the States of Holland commissioned Adriaen Anthonisz van Alcmaer to design a new line of defense for Heusden. The construction of these new fortifications, which consisted almost entirely of earthen ramparts, took almost twenty years. Small, five-sided bastions were added to the ramparts, and a new, wide moat was created around the whole. The urban buildings within the old walls remained intact, and the castle and harbor located outside them were brought within the ramparts. Heusden became an impregnable fortress.

Soon this sixteenth-century fortification was replaced by completely new fortifications. This work, which began in 1613, was completed around 1620. These defensive works are recorded on Blaeu's famous map of 1649. Under the influence of the famous engineer Simon Stevin, the Heusden fortress not only received eight bastions of large size, but also a very regular and strategic appearance: the left and right halves are almost mirror images of each other. At the same time, this renewal provided the town with more space. South of the Demer canal, a new residential area was built, which was named "Nieuwstad." Throughout the centuries, the ramparts have still regularly undergone minor adjustments. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Heusden fortress lost its military function. The ramparts fell into disrepair and were used as allotments or to graze cattle. Heusden took on the character of an open town.