Wednesday 1 April 2015

A is for Amersfoort

Floodlit medieval land and water gate in city walls

Medieval buildings have always been fascinating for me.  I can almost feel the history they contain and I imagine what life must have been like in those days long ago.  The Koppelpoort in Amersfoort is one I'd love to visit and because it's not so very far away, maybe I will one day.

Amersfoort is a very old city in the Netherlands just over 750 years old.  The Kloppelpoort is part of the second city wall built in the 14th century when the city outgrew the original city walls.

The Kloppelpoort is both a land and water gate which was opened each morning and closed each evening.  Inside the building is a huge wooden wheel, a treadmill, which had to be turned to open or close the gate. At least twelve people had to be found to walk around it, dangerous work because when the gate was lowered the wheel accelerated.  It often resulted in broken limbs or worse.

This is my first ever attempt at A-Z blogging.  After quite a long pause, I just hope I can keep up the pace. :)

8 comments:

  1. Fantastic post for A, I look forward to visiting again soon :) Best wishes for the challenge, you can do it! you've made a great start...

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  2. Nice start. Wouldn't want to be on that treadmill :)

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  3. Rob from Amersfoort takes part in Sepia Saturday and has an interesting blog.. I'm sure you will make it through to Z with all your postcards.

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  4. Would LOVE to visit that some day, and I love hearing the history of it. So nice to hear from you again, and glad to know you've joined A-Z. Thank you for the sweet comment on my blog re: the afghan. I'll get you added to my blog list of visitors from a-z so we can visit back and forth easier.

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  5. Your blog title captivated me. I enjoy seeing the world through postcards. I'm also a huge fan of architecture of all historic periods. Happy blogging.

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  6. This is a beautiful romantic picture. I love medieval buildings as well especially Gothic. If you haven't done this, you can post ahead of time:) The big challenge is finding the time to have fun and visit other blogs. I will return as I love to see travel

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  7. What a great idea for a blog :o) I will have to come back and visit regularly to see more postcards.
    As a kid I used to love getting postcards - I always wanted one of those pinup boards with postcards stuck all over it like you would see on some of the TV shows!
    Hugs xx

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  8. What an interesting place. I'd love to see it. I've been to Carcassonne in France several times....once, saw it in the distance, when driving north from Barcelona and had to make a stop...it looked like a movie set....ended up spending ten hours there!! Have been back several times since but never realized my dream of overnight within the walls of the city.

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Welcome to my postcard collection! I love hearing what you think of the cards - but spam WILL be deleted.

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