Embankment
In the countryside of Zeeland, land reclamation went hand in hand with the raising of dikes. Much of this labour was undone by the storm floods of 1530 and 1532. It was only after 1600 that large-scale repair commenced in earnest. In 1615, the city of Goes acquired the Borssele estate, and that same year a licence for poldering was granted.

Grid
In the Borssele Polder we see a similar rational grid of squares superimposed on the landscape as in the Beemster. The Renaissance village plan of Borssele was the culmination of an extended development of villages in the polders of Zeeland. The village is distinct in its design, but the town planning principle originates from the so-called "ring-front street" village (see also Colijnsplaat). Such a village consisted of a street perpendicular to the polder dike, with development on either side. On the landward side, the street was rounded off by a churchyard surrounded by buildings; on the seaward side, a harbour lay outside the dike.

Rectangle
As the polder layout became more rational, the ring was gradually transformed into a square or rectangle. Wholly in keeping with this development, the dike-reeve Cornelis Adriaenszoon Soetwater gave Borssele an orthogonal basic form. In the middle of the four sides of the rectangle, there are streets leading to a central rectangular square. Exceptional is the village's rotated position in relation to the polder's structure, for which nobody has been able to find a good explanation.

Them Aesthetics