Breda's Harbour
De haven van Breda bestond aanvankelijk uit een los- en ligplaats op het einde van de Vismarktstraat, waar ook de oude vishal is. Tussen 1552 en 1563 construeerden aannemers aan de oostzijde van de Mark en bovenstrooms een solide kademuur. In 1613 gebeurd… Read more
Breda's harbour initially consisted of an unloading and mooring area at the end of Vismarktstraat, where the old fish hall is also located. Between 1552 and 1563 contractors constructed a solid quay wall on the east side of the Mark and upstream. In 1613 the same happened on the other side. Thus the harbour was created, to which a great future was attributed at the festive opening of the Breda Turfvaart in 1618.
Until 1827 Breda had an open connection to the waters of Zeeland and Holland. The tidal difference is the port was sixty centimeters. At first sea fish was brought in, and later on river fish. At the head of the Vismarktstraat were fish banks. The river fish was sold under a wooden roof of the Waaggebouw (the later Old Post Office).
After the Mark was filled up within the canals in 1937-1941, the harbour no longer had a flow. It became a source of odour nuisance and an underwater dump for a lot of bicycles and beds.
After the harbour was filled in 1965, a few quay walls and a parking lot remained to line the site. The economic harbour activities moved to the area of the sugar factory in the north of the city. The filling in of the harbour fitted in with the philosophy of the sixties which assumed that car traffic should be able to enter the inner city easily. Above ground, the filled-in harbour formed a wide freeway; below ground was the first underground parking garage in the Netherlands. The fact that not everyone was equally satisfied with this solution becomes clear when, after only a few years, the first signals to undo the intervention are heard. In the 1980s it was the then Labour Party alderman Welschen who suggested bringing back the harbour.
It was only some 25 years later that the city council decided to re-excavate the harbour and the river Mark. In the last weekend of June 2007, the harbour was reopened and is now an important part of the inner city.