Colonies of Benevolence

In the early 19th century, Dutch reformers tried to engineer poverty away: urban paupers were resettled in orderly agricultural colonies, with farmhouses, schools and churches laid out on strict geometric plans. The Society of Benevolence founded the first colony at Frederiksoord in 1818; Wortel, the Belgian component of this transnational World Heritage property, followed within a few years. UNESCO inscribed the Colonies of Benevolence in 2021 as testimony to an Enlightenment-era experiment in social engineering that once housed thousands.