1863: Construction Begins on a Dutch Lighthouse

July 26, 1863

Work began on a lighthouse on the island of Texel, part of the Netherlands’ province of North Holland. Texel is the largest island of the West Frisian Islands, which are within the Wadden Sea (an intertidal zone in the southeastern section of the North Sea). The lighthouse on Texel is specifically located in the island’s northernmost area. This area had once been an island known as Eierland. Eierland ceased to exist as a stand-alone island after a dam connecting it with Texel was erected during the 17^th century. The lighthouse built a couple of centuries later in that part of present-day Texel, however, bears the name of Eierland.

The Eierland Lighthouse was designed by prolific Dutch architect and structural engineer Quirinus Johan Harder (1801-1880). This lighthouse was constructed on top of a 65-foot (20-meter)-high sand dune and it first went into service on November 1, 1864.

The Eierland Lighthouse was initially red, but that color eventually faded to pink. In 1977, though, a red plastic coating applied to the lighthouse restored the structure to its original color. This 114-foot (34.7-meter)-tall cylindrical brick tower was officially designated a Rijksmonument (a national heritage site of the Netherlands) in 1982.

Photo Credit: Yornik Heyl (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en)

For more information on the Eierland Lighthouse, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eierland_Lighthouse

Additional information on Dutch lighthouses is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lighthouses_in_the_Netherlands