Lelystad, a new city three meters below sea level.

At the heart of the new polders in the Zuiderzee (Southern Sea) a large city was drawn to serve as the new provincial capital. This new city was named Lelystad after the man who came up with feasible plans to empolder large parts of this sea bay: Cornelis Lely. After the Northeast Polder was drained in 1942 the German Occupation halted further work on the other polders within the Zuiderzeewerken. In 1950 work started on a large construction island wich was to become Lelystad-Haven to build the vast dyke that would encircle the new polder. It was decided that because of the vast size of this Southeast Polder construction would be split in two phase: a northern and southern portion. Lelystad is located in the first of these, in what is now the Oostelijke Flevopolder (Eastern Flevo Polder - named after the Flevo Lake of Roman times). This polder wasn't connected to the old land but separated from it by a border lake to prevent excessive drainage. The polder dyke was finished in 1955 and drainage by means of three large pumping stations started. In 1957 the new land fell dry and for the next 10 years the only inhabitants of Lelystad would be the technicians and engineers that lived on the various construction islands now part of the polder. Building work on the new city planned according to CIAM principles started in 1967, although planners and architects changed the plans some 10 years later to conform to the changing ideas on urban planning.

As the Southern Sea was the main shipping route connecting Amsterdam to Scandinavia and the Baltic, many ship wrecks were found on the former sea floor after empoldering. Lelystad therefore houses the Dutch National Centre for Maritime History with a museum and a shipyard that builds replicas of 17th century vessels with old methods. Both are located next to the modern day harbour and marina of Lelystad

The replica of the Batavia (on the left) is moored in front of the museum. In the shipyard a new vessel is under construction (middle). This is the Zeven Provinciën, Michiel de Ruyters Flagship. The shipyard is directly opposite the Lelystad marina (right).