Sandevoerde: a fishing village of the Brederodes
Zandvoort is one of the oldest coastal villages in Holland and for centuries lived almost entirely from the sea.
- Sandevoerde (1100): around 1100 the village was already known as Sandevoerde, a combination of sand and ford; the name shares its origin with the Norwegian Sandefjord.
- Living from fishing: for centuries the people of Zandvoort lived from fishing, with the fishermen pulling their boats up onto the beach.
From Groot Badhuis to Empress Sisi
In the 19th century sea bathing came over from England, and Zandvoort became one of the best known seaside resorts in the Netherlands.
- The Groot Badhuis (1828): the local doctor Dr. Mezger introduced healthy sea bathing, and in 1828 the Groot Badhuis (Great Bath House) opened.
- By train to the sea (1881): in 1881 the first station opened as the terminus of the railway from Haarlem, near the former Kurhaus; once a week an international train even arrived from Basel.
- A world first (1882): to link the remote station with the village, an electric tram was built in 1882, the second in the world after a demonstration line in Berlin; the experiment failed and became a horse tram.
- Empress Sisi: Empress Elisabeth of Austria, better known as Sisi, visited Zandvoort in 1884 and 1885; since 2004 a bust has commemorated her stay.
- Today's station (1908): in 1889 an extra stop, Zandvoort Dorp, was added, which gave the Haltestraat its name, and in 1908 the station that still stands opened closer to the village.
- The Blue Tram (1899): from 1899 an electric tram ran to Haarlem, from 1904 all the way to Amsterdam; this Blauwe Tram brought ordinary people to the sea and made its last run on 31 August 1957.
War, deportation and the Atlantic Wall
The Second World War hit Zandvoort hard and changed the village profoundly.
- Jewish residents (1942): on 12 and 13 March 1942 the entire Jewish community of about six hundred people, including more than two hundred children, was deported; only 21 of them survived the war.
- Beach closed (1942): on 23 May 1942 access to the beach was banned, and from November 1942 Zandvoort was largely evacuated; the population fell from 9,808 to 1,789.
- Demolished for the Atlantic Wall: in total 648 buildings were torn down, including 75 villas, sixteen guesthouses, twenty hotels, the bath houses and the promenade; the beach was sealed off with mines and barbed wire.
- The water tower (1943): on 17 September 1943 the Germans blew up the water tower from 1912; clearing the rubble reportedly took three months.
- Traces in the dunes: dozens of Atlantic Wall bunkers still lie in the dunes around Zandvoort.
Reconstruction and the circuit
After the liberation Zandvoort got a new face, with a race track that would become world famous.
- An ambitious plan (1945): as early as 1943 the deposed mayor Henri van Alphen had engineer Gijsbert Friedhoff draw up a reconstruction plan, presented on 20 July 1945; it was later carried out in a much simpler form.
- Built on rubble (1948): in 1948 the circuit was laid out in the dunes, partly using rubble from the houses demolished in the war.
- Formula 1: Formula 1 races were held here from 1952 to 1985, after which the permit ended because of noise; in September 2021 Formula 1 returned to the renewed Circuit Zandvoort, and 2026 was the final Dutch Grand Prix.
- Living from tourism: after 1960 almost half of the jobs in Zandvoort were linked to tourism, and attractions such as the Dolfirama (1969 to 1988) appeared along the promenade.
- Room for nature (2019): in 2019 the beach reserve Noordvoort opened on the south side, next to the Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen.
