Kijkduin Kijkduin is a
seaside resort on the
North Sea coast of the province of
South Holland in the
Netherlands. It is one of the two seaside resorts of the city of
The Hague, the other being
Scheveningen. Kijkduin has a long stretch of sand dunes along the coast. In the late 19th century, the seaside resort arose at the narrowest spot in the dunes on the south-western side of
The Hague. Around 1890, with the construction of a bath hotel, the development of a bathing culture started. Kijkduin was especially suitable this because the dunes here were so narrow that people could easily get close to the sea. The proximity of country estates and the proximity of the city also played a role in this. The bathing hotel stood lonely on the top of the white dunes for a period of time. In 1900 there were only three villas, the bath hotel and a hospice of the Sophia Foundation. Between 1920 and 1923, the "Meer en Bosch" villa park was built at the foot of the dune. This park consisted of 126 rental and owner-occupied homes. Later, in 1930, a sea hospice was also built on the dunes of Kijkduin. During and shortly after the
Second World War half of the buildings in Kijkduin were demolished as a result of the
Atlantik Wall, which was a massive defensive line built by the German occupation force. There are still 56 homes left, these fall under the protected cityscape Kijkduin - Meer and Bosch. Later, the history of the estate has an erratic course with several owners. One of these owners were the Pauw family. It is known that a member of this family (Maarten Pauw) extended the farmstead into real estate. Furthermore, Elisabeth Pauw, baroness douarière Van den Boetzelaer, ordered in 1746 land surveyor P. Looten to measure and drawn the Ockenburgh estate. The estate changed from a formal garden in 1840 into a landscape garden. The layout of the garden has not been changed since 1889. During the
First World War, Belgian soldiers stayed temporary on the estate. Furthermore, in 1919, the Ockenburgh Airfield was constructed on the site which marks nowadays the end of the Machiel Vrijenhoeklaan. The last known residents of the villa was the Menten family. In 1931 the estate was purchased by the municipality of
The Hague and opened to the public. This made the estate for the first time in centuries accessible for normal citizens. The surveillance of the airfield was initially in the hands of the Grenadiers Regiment. These were relieved on 8 May by three sections of the 22nd Depot Company Surveillance Troops. In order to provide a good defence of the site, they did not have enough time to prepare for the
German invasion of the Netherlands. The first German troops attacked the auxiliary airfield from the air in the early morning of 10 May. At first, it was only parachutists, later also airborne troops that were dropped on the field with
Junkers Ju 52. During the
Battle for The Hague Ockenburgh was a stage of heavy fighting between Dutch and German troops. Due to the large German superiority with their better armament, the depot groups were pushed back to
Loosduinen after 2 hours of heavy fighting. Of the 96 soldiers, 24 died and 18 were injured. The Germans failed to push through to the centre of
The Hague to capture the Queen, the government and the Dutch High Command. Due to the unexpectedly fierce opposition at Ockenburgh, the troops of the Grenadiers regiment from
The Hague and the Regiment Jagers from Monster were given the time to confine German troops. The artillery, which was installed at Poeldijk, ultimately drove the German troops from Ockenburgh. The 1st Battalion of Grenadiers eventually recaptured the auxiliary airfield. They also captured about 160 German soldiers. Another large group of German soldiers could escape the Dutch encirclement in the late evening of 11 to 12 May and reach Overschie via a nocturnal march. Just like the attack on the other airports in the region, Ypenburg and Valkenburg, the German attack on Ockenburgh failed. At the battle of Ockenburgh a total of 86 Dutch soldiers were killed. After the Dutch capitulation, the military auxiliary airfield came back into German hands and a fake airfield was made. With wooden planes, fake lighting and fake barracks, it was intended to tempt allied airmen to throw their bombs on the fake airfield in order to protect the operational airfields from bombing. In the middle of 1943 the fake airfield was lifted. In 1942 the first minefields were constructed and were mainly intended for the reinforcement of the
Atlantic Wall. Thousands of landmines were buried on and around the field. Soon after the liberation, these landmines had to be cleared by German prisoners of war. During the German occupation of the Netherlands, V2 rockets were also shot from the Ockenburgh estate towards London. From 1954 onward Ockenburgh has had a campsite. The villa was used as a youth hostel and got an extension in the 1970s. A large modern wing with a construction of steel and glass, also called 'The Van Klingeren wing'. In 1996 the youth hostel was closed. In 2011 the Van Klingeren construction was removed and stored. In the nineties, the current Kijkduinpark was built on a part of the campsite. Since 16 August 1990, the estate has been part of the protected nature reserve Solleveld. Over the past period, the park has been thoroughly restored under the direction of the South Holland landscape. Renovating the estate is special because it is a
Natura 2000 area. This means that the estate is part of a European network of nature reserves. Among other things, new white estate banks have been installed and the bridge to dune forest 'de Zwitserland Partij' on the banks of the Spiegelvijver has been renewed. ==References==