Schokland was a peninsula that by the 15th century had
become an island. Occupied and then abandoned as the sea encroached, it
had to be evacuated in 1859. But following the draining of the Zuider
Zee, it has, since the 1940s, formed part of the land reclaimed from the
sea. Schokland has vestiges of human habitation going back to
prehistoric times. It symbolizes the heroic, age-old struggle of the
people of the Netherlands against the encroachment of the waters.