1000 years of Pingjumer Gouden Halsband

Flood waters flowed into this channel, at one time connecting Hanzestad Bolsward with the open sea, freely and in the Middle Ages a complex dike system was established, one of the oldest in the Netherlands. This dike system protected the area behind it from flooding, even in early February of 1825 when the Frisian sea dikes burst during a heavy western storm.

Flood protection
From that time on the focus was on protection against the sea water and the sea dikes, so inland dikes such as Pingjumer Gulden Halsband lost their water defence function. In 1892 the provincial government of Friesland decided to end the Pingjumer Gulden Halsband's function as protection against the sea. 

But it's still easy to see how the Frisian Wadden coast was a tidal landscape openly connected to the sea until the early Middle Ages. It was a soggy labyrinth of gullies, marshes and swamp forests. The first pioneers in this ruthless landscape lived in hill dwellings, often on marshes or elevated embankments along channels such as the Marne.