The full circuit of Naarden's double ring of walls takes about an hour on foot and is one of the best free things to do in the area. The star-shaped layout — six bastions projecting outward from a hexagonal inner ring — is immediately legible from the walls themselves: you can look back and see the geometry working, each bastion covering the flanks of its neighbours. The broad grass berms between the inner and outer moats are public park space, good for a picnic. The moats themselves are populated with swans and coots. On clear days you can see Amsterdam.
The Star Fort Ramparts
A story
Naarden's star fort was laid out after 1572, when Spanish troops massacred most of the town's population during the Eighty Years' War. The Dutch response was to rebuild the entire town within a purpose-designed double ring of walls and moats — a fortification so effective that it was never successfully taken by storm. It remained an active military installation until 1926.