{"id":5736,"date":"2018-08-06T14:48:57","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T14:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=5736"},"modified":"2018-08-06T14:48:57","modified_gmt":"2018-08-06T14:48:57","slug":"a-beach-celebrates-itself-scheveningen-is-200-years-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/a-beach-celebrates-itself-scheveningen-is-200-years-old\/","title":{"rendered":"A Beach Celebrates Itself: Scheveningen is 200 years old!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Something special is going on this zomer\u00a0<\/em>(summer):\u00a0It is\u00a0ongelooflijk heet\u00a0<\/em>(incredibly hot)! So everybody wants just one, simple thing:\u00a0Afkoeling!\u00a0<\/em>(cooling down!). The Dutch search it in the cool\u00a0water of the\u00a0Noordzee\u00a0<\/em>(North Sea), and many at the\u00a0strand van Scheveningen\u00a0<\/em>(beach of Scheveningen). Apart from the heat, something else is special: The Scheveningen beach turned 200 years old in 2018!<\/p>\n

Sinds 1818<\/em><\/h2>\n
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Strand van Scheveningen<\/em> in 1900 (Image from Commons.wikimedia.org, public domain)<\/p><\/div>\n

Scheveningen is actually not the name of the strand\u00a0<\/em>(beach), but a\u00a0stadsdeel\u00a0<\/em>(city district) of\u00a0Den Haag\u00a0<\/em>(The Hague). Because the beach became so famous, the name is now synonymous with the\u00a0strand<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The oldest records that supposedly refer to the small fisher’s town are from the\u00a012de eeuw\u00a0<\/em>(12th century). It expanded later, perhaps due to the high vraag\u00a0<\/em>(demand) for\u00a0vis\u00a0<\/em>(fish)\u00a0of the nobility in the upcoming Den Haag\u00a0<\/em>at the time.\u00a0However, the\u00a0strand\u00a0<\/em>was established only in 1818 – so what is behind that? What determines the establishment of a beach?<\/p>\n

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The Kurhaus<\/em> (Image by Ferdi De gier at Commons.wikimedia.org under license CC BY SA 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1818, the company Jacob Pronk Nz.\u00a0<\/em>opened the first\u00a0badhuis\u00a0<\/em>(bathhouse), which was a small\u00a0houten gebouw\u00a0<\/em>(wooden building) with a\u00a0wachtkamer\u00a0<\/em>(waiting room) and\u00a0vier badkamertjes\u00a0<\/em>(four small bathrooms) with a\u00a0uitzicht\u00a0<\/em>(view) onto the sea. In 1820, this was transformed into a stone structure. This was then bought by the\u00a0gemeente\u00a0<\/em>(municipality)\u00a0Den Haag\u00a0<\/em>and turned into the\u00a0Stedelijk Badhuis\u00a0<\/em>(Municipal Bathhouse). It was then turned into a hotel and then the\u00a0Kurhaus\u00a0<\/em>was built, which stood the test of time and is still a hotel today. The name\u00a0Kurhaus\u00a0<\/em>means something like “spa house” or “health resort” in German, and translated to Dutch would be\u00a0kuurhuis.<\/em>\u00a0It is not entirely clear why the name of the building is German, but this may be related to the fact that the architects Henkenhaf and Ebert were German.<\/p>\n

And the establishment of this first\u00a0badhuis\u00a0<\/em>(bathhouse) made the beach of Scheveningen a badplaats\u00a0<\/em>(bathing place), which to this day draws many visitors from all over the world!<\/p>\n

200 years Scheveningen –\u00a0een jaar lang feest!<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n