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Urk (; ; ) is a municipality and a in the province in the center-north of the with a population of 22,173 as of 2025. It is surrounded by the on land and is on the coast of the . Urk was formerly an in the Almere, an inland sea that would become part of the in the 13th century after a series of incursions by the . The building of a from in 1939 ended Urk's status as an island and connected it to the Dutch mainland.

The mainstay of the town's formal economy has always been , with Urk having the largest fishing fleet in the Netherlands. The products of the sea coming in through Urk harbor continue to be exported widely, although today Urk's fishing boats must travel greater distances to gather them than was required in most historical periods. Urk's inhabitants are socially tight-knitted and maintain their own unique Dutch . Religious life has traditionally been very important to Urk's inhabitants, with active, conservative congregations of the Dutch Reformed denominations playing key roles in the life of the community.

Geography
Towards the north, the is enclosed by an arc of high areas of land which formed during an glaciations of the epoch: , , Urk, de , and . To the south of that arc a lake formed as a result of meltwater, which became known as Almere. North of the boulder clay highland of Urk, the river flowed into the Almere, while the river with tributaries flowed into the south of Urk. As the climate became warmer during the Middle Ages, the sea level rose whilst the surrounding areas have been slowly steadily sinking because of forebulge effect since the end of the Ice Age. During the 13th century (and especially after a large storm in 1287) the formed, and the water round Urk suddenly became a tidal sea. Because there was no sea defense, over time large pieces of the island eroded. The southwest side of Urk, which rose perpendicularly out of the sea, was called het Hoge Klif ("the High Cliff"). Around 1700 the municipality of donated sea defenses to Urk. The town contains the highest point in the province of .

History
The oldest instance of the name "Urk" is a donation certificate of 966 from Holy Roman Emperor Otto I to the Sint Pantaleonsklooster in . The text reads: cuiisdam insulae medietatem in Almere, que Urch vocatur (: "of a certain island in the middle of Almere, which is called Urch"). Until 1475 the High and Low Lordship of Urk and Emmeloord (the most northern village of ) was in the hands of the Van Kuinre family. From 1475 to 1614, the family of were Lords of Urk and Emmeloord. From 1614 to 1660, Urk and Emmeloord were ruled by the van der Werve from Antwerp. From 1660 to 1792 Urk and Emmeloord belonged to the municipality of Amsterdam, and ruled from 1660 to 1672 by Andries de Graeff. From 1792 to 1950 Urk belonged to the province of .

Urk ceased to be an island in October 1939 as part of the (just as the project was changing the salt water Zuiderzee surrounding Urk to the less saline ), and Urk's town expanded into the reclaimed land of the . Many Urkers who previously left the town because of overcrowding before the polder reclamation was completed were able to return to Urk. Later, seabed areas surrounding Urk were from the sea to become the . In 1950, Urk's jurisdiction moved away from North Holland to become part of the province of . Since 1986, Urk has belonged to the province of .

The in its early years had an alternative name "Urker Land," from which Urk's newspaper, Het Urkerland, gets its name.

Economy
The important economic pillar of the village remains fishery. After the IJsselmeer was formed, the Urkers moved their fishing operations to the . Additionally, Urk is focused on making a connection between the existing economy and new activities such as tourism, social care, maritime industry and services. The local council is keen to particularly promote tourism, retail and fisheries.[1] In the past, many lives were lost in storms on the Zuiderzee and North Sea. There is a memorial to lost fishermen on Urk, popularly known as the Urker vrouw: a statue of a woman looking out to sea, vainly awaiting the return of her husband and sons.

Transport
The A6 motorway is a major road near Urk connecting it south to and north to .

Urk has no railway station but the nearest stations are Kampen, Dronten and Lelystad, each approximately away. This makes Urk one of the most isolated places in the Netherlands as far as railway connections are concerned.

Regular passenger ferry services run during summer months across the IJsselmeer to .

Demographics
Year 2018:1906

Bonn

  • Birth Rate: 20.3 per 1000

  • Death Rate: 3.24 per 1000
  • NGR: +1.90% per year.

The of the municipality of Urk is the highest in the Netherlands as of 2016 (and highest in previous years). But like many other places in the Netherlands this number declined to 18.7% (down from 30.8% in 1988). In 1988 only had a slightly higher birth rate at 31.3%, but the birth rate Urk remained the second highest. The total fertility rate declined to 2.6 (down from 3.9 in 1988).

In 2021, 44 per cent of Urk's population was under the age of 25. This made Urk the demographically youngest municipality of the Netherlands. Number two in the country was , another Calvinist society nearby.

Politics
Local
The municipal council currently (2022) contains five political parties:
  • SGP: 6 seats
  • : 3 seats
  • CDA: 3 seats
  • Hart voor Urk: 3 seats
  • Gemeentebelangen: 2 seats
  • PVV: 1 seat
  • Krachtig Urk: 1 seat
Gemeentebelangen, Hart voor Urk and Krachtig Urk are local parties. Hart voor Urk was founded by former SGP councillor Jan Koffeman with largely identical party policies to SGP's.

A majority coalition of ChristenUnie, SGP and Hart voor Urk are currently in power. The town council is led by (non-elected) mayor Cees van den Bos.

None of these parties can be described as either left-wing (socialist) or liberal. National parties, such as the (conservative/liberal), D66 (liberal), (green party) and PvdA (labour), are not represented in Urk's town council and support for these parties in national and regional elections remains minimal. However, due to slowly growing support for the VVD, an Urk affiliate of the conservative/liberal party was founded in early 2011 and entered the 2014 local elections. However, the VVD only drew 2.7% of the vote, insufficient for a seat.

National
Urk is one of the most politically conservative areas in the Netherlands. As part of the so-called Dutch "Bible belt", a vast majority of election votes go to the three Christian parties in the Netherlands, SGP, and CDA. Urk is also known for its high turnout at each election, which is usually considerably higher than the national average (although general turnout percentages have dropped approx. 10% since 2002). Voting patterns used to be relatively stable, with approximately 85-90% of the votes spread out evenly over SGP, and CDA (each between 25-35%). CDA in Urk usually got more votes in national elections than in local elections, while ChristenUnie's support is sometimes twice locally compared to what it receives from Urk voters in national elections (this is sometimes attributed to the apparent left-wing leanings of the ChristenUnie nationally, while ChristenUnie in Urk tends to be more conservative). SGP's support locally is not much different from its support in national elections.

However, in recent years a few changes in voting patterns occurred, such as a growing support for national protest parties such as the LPF or ' PVV Freedom Party. Also, voting patterns these days tend to show bigger swings, as shown in 2010's and 2012's national elections in which CDA lost 11% and 13% respectively, and in 2011's regional elections, in which ChristenUnie lost 18%. In 2012, orthodox-Christian SGP even registered an absolute majority with 51.2% of the vote. (In the European Elections of 2014, the combined ChristenUnie/SGP list even registered 78% of the vote).

Support for established left wing parties, such as the Labour Party or the Socialist Party, remains minimal.

|- !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=left colspan="2" valign=top|Parties !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=center valign=top|Political Ideology !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=center valign=top| 2017 Votes % !style="background-color:#E9E9E9" align=right valign=top| 2021 Vote % |- align=right | |align=left|Reformed Political Party
(Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij, SGP) |align="left"|, Reformed Christian |align="right" |56.1% |align="right" |54.4% |- align=right | |align=left|Party for Freedom
(Partij voor de Vrijheid, PVV) |align=left|Right-wing populism/Anti-Islam |align="right" |11.0% |align="right" |13.8% |- align=right | |align=left|Forum for Democracy
(Forum voor Democratie, FvD) |align=left|Right-wing populism/Anti-Islam |align="right" |- |align="right" |9.0% |- align=right | |align=left|
(ChristenUnie, CU) |align=left|Social-Christianity /Orthodox Protestantism |align="right" |11.6% |align="right" |8.1% |- align=right | |align=left|Christian Democratic Appeal
(Christen-Democratisch Appèl, CDA) |align=left|Christian Democracy |align="right" |14.2% |align="right" |7.8% |- align=right | |align=left|People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
(Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie, VVD) |align=left|Conservative liberalism |align="right" |1.8% |align="right" |1.7% |- align=right | |align=left|Democrats 66
(Democraten 66, D66) |align=left|Social liberalism, Radicalism, |align="right" |0.5% |align="right" |0.5% |- align=right | |align=left|Party for the Animals
(Partij voor de Dieren, PvdD) |align=left|/ |align="right" |0.2% |align="right" |0.3% |- align=right | |align=left|Socialist Party
(Socialistische Partij, SP) |align=left| |align="right" |0.7% |align="right" |0.2% |- align=right | |align=left|
(GroenLinks, GL) |align=left| |align="right" |0.2% |align="right" |0.2% |- align=right | |align=left|Labour Party
(Partij van de Arbeid, PvdA) |align=left| |align="right" |0.2% |align="right" |0.2% |- align=right |bgcolor="darkgray"| |align=left|Other |align="left" |– |align="right" |3.4% |align="right" |3.8% |- |align=left colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9"| Total |width="100" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"| |width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100% |width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|100% |- |align=left colspan=2 style="background-color:#E9E9E9"| Turnout |width="100" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"| |width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|81.57% |width="50" align="right" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"|91.33% |}

Dialect
One of the oldest and most distinctive of Dutch is the language spoken in Urk. Nearly everyone in the village speaks this dialect and uses it in daily life. The dialect deviates considerably from contemporary standard Dutch and has preserved many old characteristics that disappeared from standard Dutch a long time ago. The also includes elements that are older than standard and were never part of the standard language. For example, the old word for "father" in the Urkish dialect is taote. The dialect developed this way because until World War II, Urk was an island and could be reached only by boat. was unknown, and the poor population did not have much money for and . Until the modern era, primary education for the children typically lasted only two years; afterwards children had to help maintain the family, and formal schooling ended.

Linguistic classifications have assigned "the dialect of Urk" or "Urk" into an own dialect group. Urk is no longer an island and exposure to the standard through the media is widespread. However, the distinctive Urkish dialect is still alive.

The Urkish dialect has more vowel sounds than standard Dutch and each vowel has short and long forms. The pronunciation of vowels deviates from standard Dutch and is closer to .

Because living conditions in Urk in historical times were very poor, young girls (typically about age 11 or 12) would frequently leave the island to become domestic servants, mostly in or around Amsterdam. They often served with families. After a few years, they would return to Urk to form families of their own. As a result of this practice, the Urkish dialect absorbed some from the Amsterdam dialect and also from . For instance, the Yiddish "Shnur" for "sister-in-law" became the Urkish "Snoar" (identical meaning); the Hebrew "Kallah" () for "bride" became the Urkish "Kalletjen", meaning "girlfriend" (literally "little bride").

When occupied the , many French words were incorporated into both standard Dutch and Urkish. Just as for standard Dutch, French words often changed form when incorporated into Urkish. The Urkish dialect has always been primarily a spoken language, and there are not many old texts written in the dialect. Only in recent years have people begun to write prose and poetry in the Urkish dialect. There are Urkers who have translated books into Urkish, such as the book of .

Culture
Folktales
A famous Urkish folktale is the story parents tell their children when they want to know where the babies come from. The tale involves a large exposed rock which can be seen in the IJsselmeer about from the shore. This stone is known as the " Ommelebommelestien". Urkers often tell their children that there are two kinds of people-- vreemden (strangers) and Urkers (people from Urk). Strangers are usually born from a cabbage, or a stork brings them to their new parents, but Urkers come from a large stone which lies about from the shores of their former island. Nowadays, the stone is usually called "Ommelebommelestien" (Ommel-Bommel Stone), but in former times it was called "Ommelmoerstien": moer means "mother's" in the Urkish dialect. In the tale, a comes all the way from to put babies in the stone. When the baby is about to be born, the baby's father is said to have to go to to pick up the key that gives access to the stone. So when an Urkish man is asked if he has been to Schokland, he is actually being asked if he has children. In the older days, when both Urk and Schokland were still islands in the , the father had to take the in his boat and row from Urk to Schokland to get the key, and then from Schokland to the Ommelebommelestien to get the baby. Nowadays he would be able to go to Schokland by car, but according to the legend he still has to row. The door to the stone is somewhere below sea level, so it is difficult to find. Once the door was found, a small price had to be paid for the baby: traditionally one for a but two for a . The mother was said to be kept in bed with a nail through her right foot. There she would celebrate that she had just become a mother.

Arts
The prolific Dutch writer Albert Cornelis Baantjer was born here. Baantjer is mainly known for his large series of detective novels revolving around police inspector De Cock and his side-kick, sergeant Vledder.

Writer lived on Urk for several years from 1932 onwards. He wrote several articles about Urk for one of the most progressive Dutch magazines, 'De Groene Amsterdammer'. While living here, he fell in love with a fisherman, and was inspired to write Zuiderzee. This novel deals with the love between two fishermen living on Urk and was one of the first, if not the first novel in Dutch literature to openly deal with homosexuality.

The Dutch writer, painter and resistance hero spent some time on Urk from 1920. While residing on Urk, during 1922, he wrote 'Afzijdige Strofen', a collection of twenty homo-erotic poems which were posthumously published in 2001.

Notable people
  • A.C. Baantjer (1923 in Urk – 2010) a Dutch author of detective fiction and police officer
  • , (born 1998), professional darts player, lives in Urk
  • (born 1999 in Urk) a Dutch footballer who plays for
  • (born 1947 in Wilsum) a former Dutch politician, Mayor of Urk from 1999 to 2005

  • Adri van Heteren (born 1951) a Dutch Christian minister in Urk

See also

External links

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