Woudagemaal Weltkulturerbe

Woudagemaal Lemmer. World heritage in Friesland

Lemmer

Das größte noch in Betrieb befindliche Dampfpumpwerk der Welt

Lemmer - Amongst the World Heritage list of UNESCO you find places such as The Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Giza and the Acropolis in Athens. One of the world heritage places in the Netherlands is the Woudagemaal in Lemmer, Friesland. The old building is the largest steam driven pumping station in the world. And up to today it still has an important function to keep the feet of the Dutch dry!

A 50-meter pool can hold 3.9 million liters of water. The Woudagemaal in Lemmer can pump that out completely within a single minute

4000 cubic meters of water per minute

The building, named after the designer Ir. Wouda, was opened in 1920 by Queen Wilhelmina. The pumping station has a capacity of 4000 cubic meters per minute and pumps water from Friesland to the IJsselmeer. In 1976 the duties of the pumping station were largely taken over by a new electric pumping station in Stavoren.

Steam is still needed

At extremely high water, however, the pumping station is still badly needed. Then the boilers are re-fired (putting the steam engines into operation takes about 8 hours) and the pumping station is again fully used to keep the province of Friesland dry.