Neighbourhood Housing of URk Netherlands

Urk is a municipality and a town in the Flevoland province in the central Netherlands. Urk was a former island in the Zuiderzee. In 1939, a dike from the mainland to Urk ended the town's island status, just as the Afsluitdijk project was changing the salt water Zuiderzee surrounding Urk to the less saline IJsselmeer. The mainstay of the town's economy has always been fishing, and the products of the sea coming in through Urk's harbour continue to be exported widely. Religious life has also 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.