Pampus

Map with the geographical conditions at the confluence of the Ij in the Zuidersee

This shoal has always been a nuisance for the trades involved in shipping, but a good income for fishermen and coasters equipped with small vehicles.

Pampus is now an artificial island in the IJmeer in the east of Amsterdam and north of Muiden ( Gooise Meren municipality ). Since the end of the Middle Ages, pampus meant a shoal between the Muider Zand and West Friesland . The island, which was created for the fort on it, the position of Amsterdam , can be visited. The Pampus / PAM rotary radio beacon, which is important for air navigation in the Netherlands and of the same name, is not on the island, but is located approx. 2 km south of Muiden.

island

Pampus

The island of Pampus is 205 meters long and 164 meters wide and has two residents. The surface is 0.03 km², the highest point is a light beacon 13.4 m above NAP . The island got its name from a name that is no longer used in Dutch today for the nature of the fairway bed : Pampus means thick mush, mush . The pampus used to be a channel, later a fairway that slowly clogged up due to the silt and thus became a dangerous obstacle for shipping. There used to be ebb and flow in the Zuiderzee . The so-called ship camel was invented around 1690 to make it easier to cope with these and other shoals of the Zuidersee .

Meaning of the fort

A room in Fort Pampus

After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, the Netherlands feared an attack on Amsterdam. A ring of fortifications was built around Amsterdam, the position of Amsterdam , and in front of the mouth of the IJ, an artificial island was built on a higher part of the Muiderzand and a fort was built. Since the island was on the Pampus fairway , the fort got this name.

The fort stands on 4,000 piles eleven meters long. The fort was completed in 1895, but it was never used for acts of war. In 1933 it was closed after the Afsluitdijk was built.

In the " Hongerwinter " of 1944/45 you could get to the fort over the ice, and so many Amsterdamers fetched wood from the fort. Germans had fetched all metal from the island before, and the fort was left to decay. It is now being conserved by volunteers.

Pampus today

For a fee you can enter Pampus from a small port, otherwise you are not allowed to moor anywhere else, as there are walls under the surface of the water. Canoeists are only allowed to moor on the small south beach.

Phrase

The Dutch idiom, Before Pampus lies, derives from the name of the shoal . It has two meanings, namely being unable to act and being completely drunk .