The first people that settled in the city of Amstelveen made a village near the Ouderkerk Church around the year 1000. There was too much distance between this neighborhood and the other larger ones, so they built the Chapel in their own town, which began the new settlement called “Newer-Amstel”. In a lot of areas in the Netherlands, peat is very prevalent including Newer-Amstel.
From the new settlement up until WWI (world war I), the main source of money and heating for many settlements was the digging of peat. They would constantly dig peat, which consequentially would lower the level of the land. This is why there are many regions that have more uneven surfaces than others.
At the beginning of the 18th century all of the bodies of water were pumped dry with windmills except one, which was the Amstelveense “Pool”. At the edge of this lake, they built a town hall in the year 1886.
History of Amstel River Countryside (Amstelland):