De Ommerschans

In Ommerschans you find yourself in two worlds: a marvellous open landscape and the closed, wooded area around the old fortress. There are still many visible traces of the Colony's past.

Ommerschans is the first in a series of Colonies where beggars, vagrants and 'the unwilling' were forcibly employed. They had no freedom. The Colony later became a state reformatory and then a psychiatric institution. In the agricultural development of the area, the landscape structure of the old Colony remained, with its (hunting) paths, avenues and waterways still recognisable, like the orientation and location of the historical buildings.

As is the work of the renowned architect W. C. Metzelaar from the period of the state institutions is well preserved. There is still a small cemetery in Ommerschans with tombstones of institutional officials, there are still Colony farms, and you will also find archaeological traces of the fortress.