Poleville 2 by Jeroen de Jongh Photography

About "Poleville 2"

by Jeroen de Jongh Photography

About the artwork

Petten is a village and former municipality, but now part of the municipality of Schagen, in the province of North Holland. The village is located on the North Sea. The population is approximately 1,645.

Petten lives on agriculture (flower bulb cultivation) and tourism. A special type of sand made of smoothly sanded quartz with garnet can be found on the beach of Petten.

Just south of Petten, the row of dunes has been knocked out, so that a dike had to be built, the Hondsbossche Zeewering. The latest dike reinforcement has created a new dune area: the Hondsbossche Duinen. The current village of Petten is the fourth village in (roughly) the same place, after two previous villages disappeared into the sea and a third was demolished by the Germans during the Second World War.

Petten is said to have originated in 739. The name refers to three wells that were located on the spot. As early as 1388 there is a sand dike between Petten and 't Oghe (Callantsoog). At the St. Elisabeth Flood of 1421, Petten was completely removed, and the row of dunes was affected. A sleeper dike was built behind the dunes in 1432 and active coastal defense took place from 1506, with pile heads of beams from Norway and Sweden and stone from Vilvoorde. Still, in 1625 more than 100 houses washed away and the church of Petten was located about 20 meters from the beach and would last there until 1701. The construction of the Hondsbossche Zeewering started in 1793, and between 1870 and 1877 - accordi