Urk general


municipality flag


municipality weapon

On April 9th, 1965 has been decided which flag Urk would have. The description of the flag is: "Blue and with a white haddock, at the upper of the flag two small horizontal stripes from red and white. At the base of the flag, also two small horizontal stripes from red and white.

Symbolic

Urk is a village with many fishermen (the haddock) and has a strong connection with the sea (the colour blue). The stripes at the upper and the base of the flag are the colours of the Dutch flag.

Draining - property

At Oktober 3th, 1939 the dike from Urk to Lemmer was closed. A moment with history: Urk was no longer an island. At 1941 the Noordoostpolder fell dry. Urk has been not bigger than 80 ha. (before 1941). More than 1000 years ago Urk had the size of the island Walcheren in Zeeland. The island had at least five villages. At the island there was a boulder clay hill. The villages each had an own name, but no village had the name 'Urk'. The name 'Urk' was for the whole island, and that is also nowadays.

History

Urk is the part of the province Flevoland with history, which goes back to the year 966. That year, Urk already was named in the papers. Urk was formerly an old bouldercalyhill in the former Zuiderzee. By the draining of the Zuiderzee in 1939, Urk was no longer an island. Before the draining took place, the residences were only builded at the high (and under storms) dry part of the island. Every metre ground at the old centre was utilized for constructing houses. By that, there is a form of building who is possibly the only one of its kind. The community which was surrounded by water, had discovered a way to exist in fishing. This sector is still an important part of the industry. The Urker fish factory is one of the biggest of the continent. The fish processing industry, which export their products to a lot of countrys, make clear that the interests of the sector 'fish' are big. Beside the fish factories, there are a few transport companies, a shipyard, and a machine factory and a lot of manual companies.