Minnewater Park

Minnewater Park is defined by the Minnewater, or Lake of Love, a rectangular body of water that once served as a vital medieval reservoir and commercial dock. The park contains the Poertoren, a fourteenth-century round tower that stored the city's gunpowder, and serves as a green buffer along the remnants of the old southern fortifications. While the area is widely associated with the romantic legend of a woman named Minna who died of exhaustion while fleeing an arranged marriage, the name actually derives from the Dutch verb for loving, and historic records suggest the lake functioned primarily to regulate water flow into the city's canal system.