Beverwijk
Encyclopedia
Beverwijk is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, in the province of North Holland
North Holland
North Holland |West Frisian]]: Noard-Holland) is a province situated on the North Sea in the northwest part of the Netherlands. The provincial capital is Haarlem and its largest city is Amsterdam.-Geography:...

. The town is located about 20 kilometres (12.4 mi) northwest of Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

 in the Randstad
Randstad
Image:Randstad_with_scale.png|400px|thumb|right|Clickable schematic map of the Randstadcircle 528 380 26 Schipholrect 426 356 498 436 Haarlemmermeerrect 399 166 479 245 Velsencircle 250 716 32 Delftcircle 220 642 60 The Hague...

 metropolitan area, north of the North Sea Canal
North Sea Canal
The North Sea Canal is a Dutch ship canal from Amsterdam to the North Sea at IJmuiden, constructed between 1865 and 1876 to enable seafaring vessels to reach the port of Amsterdam...

 very close to the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

 coast. A railroad tunnel and two motorway tunnels cross the canal between Beverwijk and the nearby city of Haarlem
Haarlem
Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...

 on the south bank.

Around 1640, a town called Beverwyck
Beverwyck
Beverwijck was a fur-trading community north of Fort Orange on the Hudson River in New Netherland that was to become Albany, New York, when the English took control of the colony in 1664....

 was founded in the Dutch colony of New Netherland
New Netherland
New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...

, this town's modern name is Albany, New York
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...

.

Population centres

The municipality of Beverwijk consists of two cores, Beverwijk proper and Wijk aan Zee
Wijk aan Zee
Wijk aan Zee is a small town on the coast of the North Sea in the municipality of Beverwijk in the province of North Holland of the Netherlands. The prestigious Tata Steel chess tournament formerly Corus chess tournament and before that called Hoogovens tournament takes place there every year.Due...

, 5 km (3.1 mi) to the west, right on the coast.

History

The name Beverwijk comes from Bedevaartswijk, meaning "pilgrimage neighbourhood". The town formed at the Saint Agatha Church which was a pilgrimage location in the Middle Ages. Allegedly Agatha of Sicily
Agatha of Sicily
Saint Agatha of Sicily is a Christian saint. Her memorial is on 5 February. Agatha was born at Catania, Sicily, and she was martyred in approximately 251...

 appeared here in the 9th century to a virgin from Velsen
Velsen
Velsen is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is located on both sides of the North Sea Canal.On the north side of the North Sea Canal, in IJmuiden, there is a major steel plant, Corus Strip Products IJmuiden, formerly known as Koninklijke Hoogovens...

 who was fleeing from the Count of Kennemerland.

In 1276 Beverwijk was granted market rights by Floris V
Floris V, Count of Holland
Count Floris V of Holland and Zeeland , "der Keerlen God" , is one of the most important figures of the first, native dynasty of Holland . His life was documented in detail in the Rijmkroniek by Melis Stoke, his chronicler...

, and in 1298 it was granted city rights
City rights in the Netherlands
City rights are a medieval phenomenon in the history of the Low Countries. A liegelord, usually a count, duke or similar member of high nobility, granted a settlement he owned certain town privileges that settlements without city rights did not have....

 by John I
John I, Count of Holland
John I was Count of Holland and son of Count Floris V. John inherited the county in 1296 after the murder of his father....

, both Counts of Holland
Count of Holland
The Counts of Holland ruled over the County of Holland in the Low Countries between the 10th and the 16th century.-House of Holland:The first count of Holland, Dirk I, was the son or foster-son of Gerolf, Count in Frisia...

.

During the 17th century wealthy merchants from Amsterdam would built their estates, such as Huize Akerendam, Huize Westerhout, and Huize Scheijbeeck, in the scenic dunes surrounding Beverwijk.

Prior to the reclamation of the IJ Bay
IJ (bay)
The IJ is a river, formerly a bay, in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is known for being Amsterdam's waterfront. The name derives from the generic Germanic term for "water" and is similar to other Aa/Ee names for bodies of water. In Dutch, the name consists of the digraph ij, which is...

, the narrowest point in the North Holland peninsula was at Beverwijk. Therefore, a defensive line was built here in 1800 following the Battle of Castricum
Battle of Castricum
The Battle of Castricum saw a Franco-Dutch force defeat an Anglo-Russian force near Castricum, Netherlands. The battle was fought during the War of the Second Coalition against Revolutionary France between French and Dutch forces under the command of General Guillaume Brune and Herman Willem...

 in 1799.

In 1944, during the Second World War, the Germans conducted a house-to-house raid in Beverwijk and Velsen-Noord
Velsen-Noord
Velsen-Noord is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Velsen, and lies about 10 km north of Haarlem.The village Velsen-Noord has a population of around 4960....

, seizing nearly 500 persons as hostages to force the murderers of 3 collaborators to surrender themselves. In all, 63 of them never returned.

Circa 1977 the first couple of furniture stores sprung up along the Parallel Road, forming the first "furniture boulevard" in the Netherlands. By 1981, 10 businesses had already been established there.

On March 23, 1997, Beverwijk was the location of a clash of two football firms. Supporters of the Dutch football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 team AFC Ajax
Ajax Amsterdam
Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax , also referred to as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam or simply Ajax , is a professional football club from Amsterdam, Netherlands...

 met with Feyenoord supporters in what has come to be known as the "Battle of Beverwijk". During this incident, one Ajax supporter was beaten to death.

Local government

The municipal council of Beverwijk consists of 25 seats, which are divided as follows:
  • PvdA
    Labour Party (Netherlands)
    The Labour Party , is a social-democratic political party in the Netherlands. Since the 2003 Dutch General Election, the PvdA has been the second largest political party in the Netherlands. The PvdA was a coalition member in the fourth Balkenende cabinet following 22 February 2007...

     - 10 seats
  • CDA
    Christian Democratic Appeal
    The Christian Democratic Appeal is a centre-right Dutch Christian democratic political party. It suffered severe losses in the 2010 elections and fell from the first to the fourth place...

     - 5 seats
  • VVD
    People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
    The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy is a conservative-liberal political party located in the Netherlands. The VVD supports private enterprise in the Netherlands and is often perceived as an economic liberal party in contrast to the social-liberal Democrats 66 alongside which it sits in...

     - 4 seats
  • GroenLinks - 3 seats
  • Democraten Beverwijk - 2 seats
  • Gemeentebelangen - 1 seats

Notable people born in Beverwijk

  • Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen
    Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen
    Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen, or Jan Mayo, or Barbalonga was a Dutch Northern Renaissance painter.-Biography:...

     (1500-1559), painter
  • Thomas Wijck
    Thomas Wijck
    Thomas Wijck was a Dutch painter, a member of Dutch family of painters and draughtsmen.-Biography:Wijck was a pupil of his father...

     (1616-1677), painter
  • Ab Geldermans (born 1935), cyclist winner of Luik-Bastenaken-Luik in 1960. Dutch champion in 1962
  • Henk Tijms
    Henk Tijms
    Henk Tijms is a Dutch professor of Operations Research at the VU University Amsterdam.He studied mathematics in Amsterdam where he graduated from the University of Amsterdam in 1972....

     (born 1944), professor
  • Wouly de Bie
    Wouly de Bie
    Wouly Sybrand de Bie is a former water polo goalkeeper from the Netherlands, who participated in two Summer Olympics. In 1980 he finished in sixth position with the Dutch team...

     (born 1958), water polo player
  • Ilse Huizinga
    Ilse Huizinga
    Ilse Huizinga is a Dutch jazz singer. She performs throughout Europe.-History:Ilse Huizinga was born in Beverwijk, the Netherlands in October 1966 and grew up in Nijmegen. It was an old piano given to her family at the age of six, which first drew Huizinga to music...

     (born 1966), singer
  • Dorus de Vries
    Dorus de Vries
    Dorus de Vries is a Dutch football goalkeeper signed to English Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers.De Vries began his professional career in his native Holland with Telstar, before spending three seasons with ADO Den Haag. He moved to Britain in 2006, when he spent a season at Scottish...

     (born 1980), football (soccer) goalkeeper
  • Niki Terpstra
    Niki Terpstra
    Niki Terpstra is a Dutch racing cyclist with UCI ProTeam . He is the silver medal winner of the team pursuit in the 2005 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, together with Levi Heimans, Jens Mouris and Peter Schep...

     (born 1984), cyclist
  • Stefan Struve (born 1988), mixed martial artist
  • Paul de Lange
    Paul de Lange
    Paul de Lange is a Dutch footballer who currently plays as a midfielder for Dutch second division club Almere City FC on loan from FC Volendam.-Career:...

    , football (soccer) player
  • Willem de Rooij
    Willem de Rooij
    Willem de Rooij is an artist working in a variety of media, including film and installation.-Biography:Willem de Rooij studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam from 1990–95 and at the Rijksakademie there from 1997-98...

    , (born in 1969), artist

External links

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