Despite a population of scarcely 2,000 residents, Marken attracts about 500 times that number in tourists each year. The town’s history has allowed it to form an identity that’s unique in all the Netherlands, which makes it an object of fascination for visitors. Until 1957, Marken was an island in the IJsselmeer; in isolation from the rest of the Netherlands, it developed an independent culture – its own architecture, dialect, dress, and more – that it still maintains, despite the closure of the dike that once separated it from the mainland. While the folk culture has become less distinctive since the ’50s, it is still clearly visible on the onetime island – now a peninsula – of Marken.