Plattegrond Oudewater c. 1657 - 1704

This anonymous map of Oudewater presents the city as a fortress of order and reason. Encircling walls and geometric fields reveal a deep-seated need for control, yet also reflect the innovative urban planning of the time. Consider the lion rampant atop the city's coat of arms, a symbol of courage and nobility seen throughout European heraldry, tracing back to ancient Mesopotamian motifs. Lions in art become potent symbols of both royal power and divine strength. The map itself, a bird's-eye view, mirrors early celestial maps—an attempt to chart the unknown, to bring cosmic order down to earth. Yet, even within this structured layout, the presence of water, dividing and surrounding the city, hints at the unconscious—the chaotic, ever-flowing forces of nature. The townscape, therefore, becomes a stage where the conscious and unconscious, order and chaos, play out their eternal drama. The image serves as a reminder of humanity's unending quest to impose order upon a world that forever resists it.