Gracht (Dutch pronunciation: [ɣrɑxt]; plural: grachten) is a Dutch word for a canal within a city. Often, Grachten encircle city centres in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Northern Germany. Outside the Netherlands, the word grachten mostly refers to the city canals of Amsterdam (for which it is well known) and also Utrecht, Leiden and The Hague. The Koninginnegracht in The Hague was conceived by King Willem I for the promotion of tourism in the early 19th century. Since 2009 the Willemsvaart once more offers tours over this gracht, to Scheveningen, known as "StrandRelax" or "BeachRelax", a unique stretch of sand between The Hague and the sea.
Translation
The word gracht cannot be easily translated; for this reason, it is necessary to distinguish between four related terms:
A gracht (city-canal) is a waterway in the city with one-way streets on both sides of the water. The streets are lined with houses, often in a closed front. In rare cases, there is only one street, and on the other side of the waterway, the houses border on the water. A kanaal (literally meaning 'canal') is a man-made watercourse, usually in the countryside, with or without streets along its banks. A vaart is a canal used for transport, rather than for other purposes such as drainage. Like most kanalen, they are usually in the countryside. A singel is by origin a water-filled moat which surrounds a city for defense purposes. When the city expands, the singel is incorporated in the city's structure and can no longer be distinguished from a gracht, but the name singel is usually maintained. As such, singels often encircle (older) parts of the city. However, in other cases regular grachten were dug in circles as well, like the famous Grachtengordel (literal translation: grachten belt) of Amsterdam. Although the word gracht means 'canal' or 'waterway' in the general sense, there is no exact equivalent for the term in English.
In Flemish The Dutch language spoken in the north of Belgium, Flemish, is different from the standard Dutch language spoken in the Netherlands. In Belgium the word gracht can also mean ditch. For example: Cars can end up in the ditch and a Belgian news paper would write Wagen in de gracht beland above their news article. A dry ditch, alongside the road, has nothing to do with the canals in Amsterdam and it makes people from the Netherlands frown when they hear or read this for the first time. A dry ditch next to a road would be called greppel in the Dutch language of the Netherlands, not gracht. On a side note: Using wagen instead of auto to indicate a car is another give away that the article was written in Flemish.
Etymology
The word gracht stems from the older word graft, which is derived from graven, to dig (cf. English "grave"). The Dutch language has had a sound shift in which the combination -ft became -cht. Other examples are lucht (German: Luft, air) and zacht (English: soft). In some regional languages such as Frisian and Gronings, the word graft is still used. In Dutch, the word gracht is used only when canals are located inside the city, while canals outside a city are called kanaal. However, Venice is an exception. In Dutch, one does not say "de grachten van Venetië" (the city-canals of Venice), but "de kanalen van Venetië" (the canals of Venice). Toponyms for grachten are usually made by the suffixes -gracht, -singel (which refers to the old circle-shaped canals), -wal (referring to the bank of the gracht), -vest (referring to a fortification), and -kade (Southern Dutch: -kaai; quay). The suffix -diep is used in Groningen where it is a local word for a large canal. When a gracht is a remake of an old river, the river's name is used.
History Grachten were the life-lines of Dutch and Flemish cities. They were used for many purposes: for transportation, for draining, as water supply and as sewers, all at the same time. In heavily populated cities, these combined functions repeatedly proved to be detrimental to the public health.
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