IJmuiden () is a port city in the Netherlands, Dutch province of North Holland. It is the main town in the municipality of
Velsen which lies mainly to the south-east. Including its large sea locks, it straddles the mouth of the
North Sea Canal to
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
. To the south
it abuts a large reserve of plant-covered dunes, the
Zuid-Kennemerland National Park. The city is on the south bank; the north bank is otherwise a steel plant and
Velsen-Noord.
It is north northwest of
Haarlem
Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...
which is due west of Amsterdam.
The port is a
deepwater port
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...
suited to fully laden
Panamax ships, and fourth port of the Netherlands.
The
internal capitalization within IJmuiden is as
IJ is a
digraph in modern
Dutch so in some typefaces recognised as a
ligature which places it in one typed or handwritten space.
History
In the
Roman era
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...
, the district was already inhabited, and archaeological finds at the im
polder
A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as dikes. The three types of polder are:
# Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a lake or the seabed
# Flood plains ...
ed lake of Wijkermeer indicate there was a
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...
port of some regional importance built here. Present day IJmuiden includes four harbors: the ''vissershaven'' (Ship's code IJM), a fishing dock (visafslag), the ''haringhaven'', the ''IJmondhaven'' and the Seaport Marina IJmuiden, a harbour for pleasure craft. IJmuiden became the largest fishing port of the Netherlands after the island of
Urk became closed in by the
Afsluitdijk. The town suffered heavy damage and demolition during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, because of its maritime importance.
IJ-mouth
Before IJmuiden was built, the area was known as ''Breesaap'', a desolate plain where a handful of farming families strove to make a living.
Plans to connect
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
with a canal to the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...
, with its mouth in this area, had been drawn up already since 1626, but were only set into motion in the 19th century, when in 1851 the whole area was sold to the entrepreneurs Bik and Arnold. Ground was broken on 8 April 1865.
IJmuiden is the newest city in North Holland. It was founded on 1 November 1876, when the
North Sea Canal was officially opened by
William III of the Netherlands
William III ( Dutch: ''Willem Alexander Paul Frederik Lodewijk''; English: ''William Alexander Paul Frederick Louis''; 19 February 1817 – 23 November 1890) was King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 1849 until his death in ...
, shortcutting
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
's harbours' passage to the sea. He dubbed the town IJmuiden after passing the locks from the North Sea into the canal. After his ship, the
paddle steamer
A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses wer ...
''Stad Breda'' built by the
Stoomvaart Maatschappij Zeeland, passed, the first ship from Amsterdam, the ''SS Rembrandt'' built by the
Royal Netherlands Steamship Company (KNSM), passed the other way. The workers who dug the canal later settled there; they found work after the canal was finished in the fishing industry, but many also suffered extreme poverty.
The IJmuiden name literally means “mouth of the
IJ”, which is a hint to the importance the town has for the
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
harbour. The name first appeared, as ''IJ-muiden'', in lines written in 1848 by the
professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...
and
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
(and, later, a
liberal finance minister in the
Van Lynden van Sandenburg Cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filin ...
) Simon Vissering. The present ''IJmuiden'' form was eventually adopted in 1876, as the
North Sea Canal was being completed in this section.
In 1890 it had about 1,500 inhabitants, but boomed when the
Koninklijke Nederlandse Hoogovens steelworks settled in IJmuiden in 1918. At that time shipping was at a low, because during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
minesweepers laid mines nearby. The entry to the canal needed constant dredging due to the
littoral drift in both directions on an open, sandy coast: due to winds blowing alternately from opposite quarters, sand accumulates in the sheltered angles outside the harbour between each converging breakwater and the shore.
Second World War
After the German
invasion of the Netherlands on 10 May 1940, the Dutch Royal family left the country from IJmuiden in the late evening of 12 May. Some were on board the British
destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed ...
, while
Queen Wilhelmina left on board . The quays at IJmuiden were crowded at that time with people desperate to be transported across the channel, sometimes at great expense. During the Nazi German occupation, the canal was out of operation and the Germans destroyed most of IJmuiden to create what they called ''Festung IJmuiden'' (literally "fortress", a heavily defended zone, from which the civilian population had been removed.
IJmuiden became the site of two separate fortified pens constructed by the German navy (''
Kriegsmarine
The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...
'') to house their ''schnellboote'' (fast torpedo boats, known to the
Allies
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
as
E-boats)
and ''
Biber''
midget submarine
A midget submarine (also called a mini submarine) is any submarine under 150 tons, typically operated by a crew of one or two but sometimes up to six or nine, with little or no on-board living accommodation. They normally work with mother ships, ...
s.
The older structure, codename ''Schnellbootbunker AY (SBB1)'', was protected by a thick concrete roof.
The newer one, codename ''Schnellbootbunker BY (SBB2)'', had of concrete, with a further layer separated by an air–gap.
The E-boats laid up in the shelters during the day, safe from air–attack, and put to sea under cover of night to attack Allied shipping.
The pens were priority targets after
D-day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
as the torpedo boats they protected were a great threat to the supply lines serving Allied forces. They were subjected to repeated air attack. This included four attacks by
No. 9 Squadron and
No. 617 Squadron of the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
. These saw 53 five–ton,
Tallboy earthquake bombs dropped. There were also two attacks in 1945 by the
American air force with rocket–powered
Disney bombs, specialist weapons designed to penetrate fortified, concrete bunkers that could resist conventional bombs.
The story of IJmuiden during the war is told in the
Bunker Museum IJmuiden . The city is also mentioned in
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
North Holland's gate to the North Sea
After the war, the town was rebuilt according to a plan by the architect
Willem Marinus Dudok. The statistical area IJmuiden, which includes the surrounding countryside, has a population of 30,466. The headquarters of the KNRM,
Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Institution
The Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Institution ( Dutch: ''Koninklijke Nederlandse Redding Maatschappij'', abbreviated: ''KNRM'') is the voluntary organization in the Netherlands tasked with saving lives at sea. For that purpose, it maintains 45 l ...
is against the canal. The harbour coastline remains a measuring point for the northern extremes of the
equidistantly set UK-Netherlands
sea boundary. The law discounts the projection of
Europoort, the natural end of which, Hook of Holland (''Hœk van Holland''), forms a southern measurement point.
The
North Sea Canal connects the North Sea with the
IJ Bay in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
, and the importance of this ship canal has been recognized with the introduction of the "Holland Route" along the canal by the
European Route of Industrial Heritage
The European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH) is a tourist route of the most important industrial heritage sites in Europe. This is a tourism industry information initiative to present a network of industrial heritage sites across Europe. The ...
(ERIH). The places to see on this route are the
Hoogovensmuseum
The Hoogovensmuseum is a museum located on the northern side of the North Sea Canal sluice gates at IJmuiden, in the former "buizengieterij" (pipe making factory) of Koninklijke Hoogovens, now Tata Steel IJmuiden, on the Buizenweg in Velsen-Noord. ...
, the system of sluice gates at the mouth of the canal, and the
Zee- en Havenmuseum in IJmuiden. IJmuiden is home to two of the world's most powerful water pumps capable of pumping per second.
Besides the
Velsen Municipality Hall ''(Raadhuis van de gemeente Velsen)'', designed by the architect Willem Dudok as a centerpiece to his plan for a new IJmuiden, important sights in IJmuiden are the North Sea
locks. The latter are among the largest in the world and one set is able to close off a shipping lane wide and deep. There are plans to enlarge or build a new set to facilitate passage for even larger vessels.
DFDS Seaways serve a route between
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
and
Newcastle (
Port of Tyne) via IJmuiden. A new
roll-on/roll-off
Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...
ferry route between IJmuiden and
Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...
in the United Kingdom was considered.
Dutch daily ferry link a step closer ''(Business Weekly, December 12, 2001)''
Any plans in that direction appear to have been abandoned by the relevant authorities.
The North Sea Race, is a yacht
A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...
race which takes place annually. The event covers a distance of and starts in Scarborough, North Yorkshire
Scarborough () is a seaside town in the Borough of Scarborough in North Yorkshire, England. Scarborough is located on the North Sea coastline. Historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire, the town lies between 10 and 230 feet (3–70 m) abov ...
, in England and finishes in IJmuiden.
Gallery
Corus-IJmuiden.jpg, North Sea Canal's wide mouth
Hoogovens.JPG, IJmuiden steelworks
Koninklijke Hoogovens known as Koninklijke Nederlandse Hoogovens en Staalfabrieken (KNHS) until 1996 or informally Hoogovens. was a Dutch steel producer founded in 1918. Since 2010, the plant is named Tata Steel IJmuiden.
The IJmuiden steelwor ...
is a key actor for the IJ
Vissersboten IJmuiden.jpg, Fishing boats
A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing.
The total number of fishing vessels in the world in 2016 was e ...
at quay in IJmuiden
Jachthaven IJmuiden.jpg, IJmuiden's marina
IJmuiden chateau d eau.jpg, Old water tower
Notes
References
;Citations
;Bibliography
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ijmuiden
Populated places established in 1876
Populated places in North Holland
Port cities and towns of the North Sea
Port cities and towns in the Netherlands
Velsen
1876 establishments in the Netherlands
Populated coastal places in the Netherlands