#Landmark
Stützpunkt Nettelbeck 1
From the end of 1942, the Germans established the Kernwerk Vlissingen in the port area. A Kernwerk is a “fortress within a fortress.” If the defence of Vlissingen was breached, the Germans could retreat to the Kernwerk, located in the city’s most important area — the harbour. Of the many bunkers built, few remain today. At the Klipperkade near the welding shed, there is still a type 630 machine-gun bunker, fully restored and operated as a museum bunker by the Stichting Festung Walcheren.
Other bunkers of the Kernwerk can be found at the eastern mouth of the Buitenhaven of Vlissingen, specifically at the Veiligheidscentrum Zeeland, a fire brigade training centre. These bunkers can only be visited with permission from the centre. They are remnants of the naval battery Kernwerk Vlissingen, including a type M 145 ammunition bunker and a type M 170 gun bunker — the latter being the last casemate of this type in the Netherlands. This bunker shows damage to the gun opening caused by wartime bombardment and heavy artillery fire. This section of the dike was heavily bombed multiple times by the British strategic air force.
There is also a type 114A neu bunker with an armoured turret for two machine guns (6-Schartenturm), the only bunker of this type built in the Netherlands. In addition, there is a type 633 bunker for a machine grenade launcher (M 19), which is also the only remaining example in the country.
In 1939, two Dutch cast-steel machine-gun casemates were built here, which still survive. One faces forward, the other flanking. The flanking casemate is rare among remaining bunkers. It has been restored by the Stichting Bunkerbehoud and is the only one of all the bunkers here that is freely accessible to the public.