Batavialand's centrepiece is a replica of a 17th-century Dutch merchant frigate, the Batavia, which took 10 years to reconstruct. The original was a 17th-century Titanic – big, expensive and supposedly unsinkable. True to comparison, the Batavia, filled to the brim with cannon and goods for the colonies, went down in 1629 on its maiden voyage off the west coast of Australia. The replica, however, redeemed its predecessor in 2000 by sailing around the Pacific.
The huge weathered wooden skeleton alongside belongs to the Seven Provinces, a replica of Admiral Michiel de Ruijter's massive 17th-century flagship, completed in 2018. Construction of a 14th-century Zuiderzee cargo vessel, using traditional techniques, began in 2016; it's due for completion in 2021.
In a separate building, the Netherlands Institute for Maritime Archaeology displays the remains of a 2000-year-old Roman ship found near Utrecht, and 140 model ships.
The adjacent Nieuw Land Museum has exhibits on polder reclaimation aimed at kids, who can build dykes, operate sluices, navigate ships through locks and perform tree-ring dating to determine the age of a ship's timbers.
From Lelystad's train station, take bus 3 (10 minutes, every 30 minutes).
