hidden europe 26

Swallowed by the sea: Jordsand

by Nicky Gardner

Summary

Jordsand is no more. The island in the Wadden Sea was once German then Danish and provided valued summer grazing for livestock from Jutland. Now it has been swallowed by the waves.

Much of the focus of the international debate on climate change and its impact on coastlines relates to the effects of global warming in low latitudes. But Europe is not immune to the effects of rising sea levels. About one quarter of the territory of the Netherlands is below sea level. While geographers ponder the likely fate of tropical islands, tides are taking their toll on some of those islands' European counterparts.

Within historical times, several islands have simply disappeared in the Venetian lagoon. The former island of San Marco in Boccalama once housed a large monastery until the monks could hold back the rising tide no longer. They even sunk two ships to shore up the island's fragile sea defences. After the monks had left, the island found new life as a mass grave for victims of the plague in 1348. But then the waters of the lagoon rolled in and San Marco disappeared in a watery grave.

This is just an excerpt. The full text of this article is not yet available to members with online access to hidden europe. Of course you can read the full article in the print edition of hidden europe 26.
Related note

In honour of Doreen Massey 1944-2016

We have this weekend heard the sad news of the death of Doreen Massey, the distinguished geographer whose ideas powerfully influenced our work at hidden europe. Her ability to challenge everything is a model for all socially committed writers, editors and publishers.

Related note

That long, cold winter

The European winter that is now — all too belatedly — being eclipsed by spring has seemed painfully long. Yet curiously, it has not been exceptionally cold. Across much of Europe, March was chilly by the standards of the average March, but it broke very few records for absolute minima. And a biting north-east wind made some areas feel much colder than the thermometer suggested.

Related article

Railway ghosts

Literary ghosts haunt the pages of mid and late 19th-century fiction - from Henry James The Turn of the Screw to Charles Dickens' The Haunted House. One of the spookiest tales of all is Dickens' The Signalman, a fine short story which may have been influenced by the train crash in which Dickens was involved in summer 1865.