Saturday, February 17, 2024

Lighthouse of the Week, February 11-17, 2024: Scheveningen, The Netherlands

 

One thing I've discovered about lighthouses in The Netherlands -- a lot of them are various combinations of red and white. That's not uncharacteristic of lighthouses in general, but it seems like The Netherlands are particularly fond of this combination. You'd think, given the flag, that Denmark would be more into the red-and-white.  (I also just discovered that the Netherlands flag is three horizontal stripes, red on top, white in the middle, blue on the bottom -- and this inspired many other flags, as it's one of the oldest country flags in history. So it's boring, but they're not going to change it. I guess I was thinking that the flag must have orange in it, because the national soccer team famously wears orange -- but those are the king's colors. And they put an orange pennant on the flag on "King's Day" and the birthdays of the King and Queen.)

But enough about that. This lighthouse is an example of a red-and-white design. This is an older and historic lighthouse in The Hague, and is considered one of the world's "greatest iron lighthouses".  You'll see that again shortly.

This is where it is.

Below, the excerpted information from the Lighthouse Directory.

"1875 (Quirinus Harder). Station established by 1630. Active; focal plane 49 m (161 ft); two white flashes, separated by 2.3 s, every 10 s. 30 m (98 ft) dodecagonal (12-sided) cast iron tower with lantern and gallery, attached or adjacent to a 2-story keeper's house. 3rd order Fresnel lens in use. Lighthouse painted red, lantern and gallery white with a green dome. ... One of the world's greatest iron lighthouses, this classic Dutch tower was prefabricated by Nering Bögel of Deventer. The historic light station is now managed by the Scheveningen Museum."

So, if you ever visit the Hague, look seaward.

Meanwhile, look down for pictures.






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