Fort Vossegat stands at the eastern edge of Utrecht, close to the university campus of De Uithof, and its watchtower tells you a lot about how this country once planned to survive. A reduit is the central stronghold of a fort, the last place you fall back to when the outer works are gone. At Vossegat it is a tough brick block rising out of a moat, with a tower from which a sentry could see over the flat land toward the approaches east of the city.
The fort belongs to the New Dutch Waterline, a nineteenth-century defensive belt that ran from the Zuiderzee down to the Biesbosch. The plan was to protect Holland, the economic heart of the country, behind a sheet of shallow water, with forts like Vossegat guarding the dry crossing points. By the time it was finished, rifled artillery and then aircraft had already made much of it obsolete, and it was never used as intended on a large scale. What survives is a surprisingly intact system of forts, sluices and bunkers, now recognised as part of the UNESCO Dutch Water Defence Lines.
Riding to the tower means threading through suburban Utrecht: roundabouts, bus lanes, cycle tracks and speed bumps. It is not an exciting stretch, but it is easy, and the final approach is lovely, with low earthworks, a ring of water and tall old trees. Park where the signs allow and walk. Forts like this are often open for events or guided tours rather than all the time, so a quick check of local listings is wise if you want to go inside; otherwise the exterior and moat are the draw.
The city of Utrecht, only two kilometres away, has everything you could want. Fuel is on the ring roads, and a coffee and an apple pastry at a café on the Oudegracht makes a nice contrast with the military severity of the fort. Utrecht's Dom Tower, 112 metres tall, is the tallest church tower in the country, and climbing it is a good way to see how the Waterline's flooded plains once spread to the horizon.
Choose a bright October morning, when the moat reflects the red brick and the leaves on the earthworks have turned.