The reclamation of Flevoland new land started in 1950. It took seven years to build a ring dike and drain the enclosed area. With 54.00 hectares of land, Flevoland is the largest Dutch polder.
The reason for the land reclamation, was mainly for housing people from overcrowded Amsterdam instead of reclaiming sea for agricultural land. The landscape is very varied with alternating fields, meadows and lots of forest.
The most important new cities are Almere and Lelystad.
Almere is named after the inland lake Almare, and means “big lake”. Almere is the newest city in the Netherlands, but it is also the fastest growing city. By 2030 it will become the fifth largest city in the country.
There is interesting landscape art, such as the Green Cathedral, 178 poplar trees planted in the floor plan of Notre Dame Cathedrale de Reims.
Perhaps the most remarkable building of Flevoland is the castle ruin of Almere. The construction started in 1999 as a copy of the Belgian castle Jemeppe. Halfway through, the initiator went bankrupt and the planned conference center fell into disrepair.
Lelystad has the Nieuw Land Polder Museum and the Batavia Wharf, where the 17th-century VOC ship Batavia and the Admiralty ship Zeven Provinciën can be seen.
In the Aviodrome, the national aerospace museum, the departure hall of Schiphol from 1928 has been recreated, and a large collection of military and civil aircraft is on display.
In Bataviastad, the first outlet center in the Netherlands, you can buy designer clothes at a discount.