The Vecht is a

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

branch in the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

province of

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

. It is sometimes called Utrechtse Vecht to avoid confusion with its Overijssel counterpart. The area along the river is called the

Vechtstreek The Vechtstreek () (Dutch for "Vecht area") is a region in the Dutch provinces of Utrecht and North Holland along the Vecht River between the towns of Utrecht and Amsterdam. Located in the economic heartland of the Netherlands, it is known for it ...

Geography

The Vecht originates from the city of

, where the

Kromme Rijn The Kromme Rijn () ("Crooked Rhine", for its many bends) is a river in the central Netherlands. In Roman times, this northernmost branch of the Rhine delta was the main distributary of this major European river. Along its banks the Romans bui ...

stream forks into two branches: the

Leidse Rijn The Leidse Rijn (Dutch for "Leiden's Rhine") is a canal in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands. It was dug since the Middle Ages when the meandering old Rhine course silted up. The Leidse Rijn has a length of 13 km. Towns along the Leidse Rijn ...

/ Oude Rijn branch to the west and the Vecht to the north. Originally the Vecht branched off south of the city near the Roman fort

Fectio Fectio, known as ''Vechten'' in Old Dutch, was a Roman '' castellum'' in the province Germania Inferior established in the year 4 or 5 AD. It was located at the place where the river Vecht (''Fectio'') branched off from the Rhine, leading to Lak ...

, flowing eastwards around the city, but in the 12th century a northern shortcut was dug out. The Vecht meanders north past the towns and villages of

Maarssen Maarssen () is a town in the middle of the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht, along the river Vecht and the Amsterdam–Rhine Canal. The west of Maarssen is called Maarssen-BroekStatistics are taken from thSDU Staatscourant whereas the east ...

Breukelen Breukelen () is a town and former municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. It is situated to the north west of Utrecht, along the river Vecht and close to the lakes of the Loosdrechtse Plassen, an area of natural and tourist ...

and

Nigtevecht Nigtevecht () is a village in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands with a population of 1,395. Formerly part of the municipality of Loenen; it has been part of the newly-formed municipality of Stichtse Vecht since 2011. It is situated about west ...

, crosses the border into the province of

North Holland North Holland ( nl, Noord-Holland, ) is a province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevoland. In November 2019, it had a ...

, passes the city of

Weesp Weesp () is a city, an urban area in the municipality of Amsterdam and a former municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It had a population of in . It lies on the river Vecht and next to the Amsterdam–Rhine Canal in an are ...

and discharges into the

IJmeer The IJmeer is a ' bordering lake' (''Randmeer'') in the Netherlands. It lies between the De Nes polder (in Waterland), Pampushaven, Hollandse Brug and the mouth of the IJ in IJburg, straddling the provinces of North Holland and Flevoland. It i ...

(Lake IJ, part of the former

Zuiderzee The Zuiderzee or Zuider Zee (; old spelling ''Zuyderzee'' or ''Zuyder Zee'') was a shallow bay of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands, extending about 100 km (60 miles) inland and at most 50 km (30 miles) wide, with an o ...

) at

Muiden Muiden () is a city and former municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It lies at the mouth of the Vecht and is in an area called the Vechtstreek. Since 2016, Muiden has been part of the new municipality of Gooise Mere ...

. The Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal ( Amsterdam-Rhine Canal) was dug in the Vecht basin. The

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

historian

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historiography, Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his t ...

tells us that in the first century CE a Roman fleet sailed due north down a Rhine branch, then sailed past

Lake Flevo Lake Flevo was a lake in what is now the Netherlands, which existed in Roman times and the early Middle Ages. Some geographers believe that this lake was not really a single lake, rather a set of several lakes connected to each other. From the ...

(now the Markermeer and IJsselmeer lakes) into the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

. This could have been the

IJssel The IJssel (; nds-nl, Iessel(t) ) is a Dutch distributary of the river Rhine that flows northward and ultimately discharges into the IJsselmeer (before the 1932 completion of the Afsluitdijk known as the Zuiderzee), a North Sea natural harbour ...

, which the Romans connected to the Rhine themselves, or the river Vecht. In the 17th and 18th centuries many country estates, known as

buitenplaats A buitenplaats (literally "outside place") was a summer residence for rich townspeople in the Netherlands. During the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, many traders and city administrators in Dutch towns became very wealthy. Many of them boug ...

en,"Rivers of the World: the Vecht in Holland", Radio Netherlands Archives, January 31, 2003
/ref> were built on the banks of the Vecht by rich merchants and administrators from

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

References

Rivers of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta Rivers of the Netherlands Rivers of North Holland Rivers of Utrecht (province) Geography of Gooise Meren Stichtse Vecht Utrecht (city) Weesp {{Netherlands-river-stub