In this episode, curator Jesse van Dijl first cycles past Egmond aan Zee. There is the famous Van Speijkvoortoren, built in 1834. It is not the oldest in the Netherlands, but the oldest lighthouse that is still in use. Less known is that Egmond aan Zee once even had two lighthouses: in addition to the Van Speijk, the Zuidertoren was also built in 1833. A year later, both towers went into operation simultaneously.
The construction of the lighthouses hung closely with the disaster with line ship De Wassenaar in 1827. That ship stranded with more than a thousand people on the coast, a tragedy that made the need for lighthouses painfully clear.
Two towers and red light
Almost two hundred years later, the Van Speijk is still the pride of Egmond. There is nothing left of the other lighthouse, except the dune on which he stood: the Torensduin. The Van Speijk was the Noordertoren. That Egmond once got two lighthouses, just a stone’s throw from each other, of course had a reason.
“That was to prevent confusion with other places such as Scheveningen and Den Helder,” says Jesse. “There were also lighthouses, and to avoid mistakes, Egmond got two. For example, Schippers knew exactly where they were feeding.”
Extra confusion
But with the opening of the North Sea Canal and the construction of two lighthouses in IJmuiden, the confusion struck. That is why the Zuidertoren was put out of operation in 1891 and demolished in 1915. To prevent mistakes, the Van Speijk from that moment received a red light that burned for decades.
“The villagers were particularly attached to the red light of the lighthouse,” says Jesse from newspaper reports in the Alkmaar Regional Archive.