Jaap van 't Veen's photos with the keyword: Petten

The village of Petten has been existing since 1300 and was originally called Petten bi der Sipe . During a storm in 1625 no less than a hundred houses were destroyed. The village disappeared completely into the sea in 1792. From the 18th century onwards, Petten was gradually relocated. Petten's past and the struggle against the sea is emphasized by the Palendorp (Pole Village). This monument and work of art was placed in 2016. The 160 poles - six and twelve meters high - form the silhouette of a former church and ten houses. It was a gift of the contractors who carried out the project Kust op Kracht .

In the Middle Ages were dunes on the spot of the Hondsbossche and Pettemer Zeewering . Large storms such as the All Saints' Flood in 1570 swept away these dunes and the North Sea was only stopped by dikes. The impressive sea dike, protecting the villages of Petten and Camperduin, was designated in 2002 as one of the eight weak points of the Dutch coast. It was decided not to further raise the existing dike, but to opt for a solution with 'sand': Kust op Kracht (Coast on Strength). March 2014 the project started to create a beach and dune area on the seaside of the dike, stretching over eight kilometers between Petten and Camperduin and 300 meters wide. Approximately 35 million cubic meters of sand was used for this new piece of land of about 400 soccer fields. The newly created dune area was given the name Hondsbossche Duinen . This approach resulted in a new recreation area and artificial dune landscape with a wide beach, cycling and walking paths, but also a new area for birds with a wet dune valley lake. Near Petten is a panorama dune (26 meters high) - www.ipernity.com/doc/294067/48526386 - where one has a beautiful view over this new part of the Netherlands.

About 15.000 years ago the Netherlands and the UK were connected by a land mass. The arctic ice stretched out into Germany and Scotland. When temperatures started to rise, the ice receded and the meltwater caused the rise of the sea levels. The residents of the low-lying regions started to move to higher locations. About 1.000 years ago people started to build dikes to protect their land against the sea. Nowadays nearly half of the Netherlands lies below sea level and is protected by 14.000 kilometers of dikes. One of the most impressive dikes in the Netherlands is the Hondsbossche en Pettemer Zeewering . The name of this sea wall appears in records for the first time around 1350. The first dike was made entirely of sand. In 1873 the Hondsbossche en Pettemer Zeewering became the dike as it stands today with heavy basalt blocks on the sea-facing side. On 1 February 1953 the Netherlands was hit by a devastating flooding. Large parts of the western provinces of the country were flooded and more than 1.800 people drowned during these floods. The Dutch government decided the so called ‘Deltaplan’, to create coastal reinforcements. Due to this plan the Hondsbossche en Pettemer Zeewering was raised till a height of 11,5 meters above NAP (Amsterdam Ordnance Datum). The climate is changing and sea levels are still rising. That means that several weak spots in the Dutch coastline had/have to be reinforced again. Hondsbossche en Pettemer Zeewering was one of these weak links. The authorities decided to use a new method for the reinforcement: Zand tegen Zee (Sand versus Sea). The dike itself was not raised, but instead March 2014 started the project to create a beach and dune area in front of the dike, stretching over eight kilometers between Petten and Camperduin and 250 meters wide. Approximately 35 million cubic meters of sand was used for this new piece of land of about 400 soccer fields. This approach resulted in a new recreation area with a new beach, cycling and walking paths, but also a new area for birds with a dune lake (PiP 3). The main picture and PiP 2 were taken from a newly created panorama dune (PiP 1) with a height of 26 meters near Petten.