"Old Urk - The Fishing Village"

 Old Urk - The Fishing Village

Painting in 1997 by Jacob Poulain 

(I have painted a second painting in 2009)

Old Urk in the 1900's, when it was still an island in the sea had a light house, which now stands as a museum no longer used for this purpose.  In the harbour the older type fishing boats are similar to the boat my grandfather Jacob van den Berg owned, it is in this harbour that he would have his boat moored.  Sometimes the fishing boats were away for a whole week quite often the fishermen did not return home as the boats and their crew sadly perished in the storm. I have a vague recollection of approximately one hundred fishing vessels in the Old Urk.  In modern times fishing was carried out by approximately 300 large trawlers and became one of the biggest fleets in Europe in the 1970 - 80's.  Recent depletion of the fishing stock in the oceans has contributed to the decline in the fishing industry.

Old Urk has been retained as a tourist destination - a museum of history, modern Urk like most modern places has the restaurants, sit down coffee shops and modern housing.  Urk was and still is a very religious population almost everybody still dresses to go to church every Sunday.