Zandvoort

Zandvoort is known to exist in 1100, called Sandevoerde (a combination of "sand" and "voorde", meaning ford; compare English Sandford). Until 1722 the area was under the control of the Lords of Brederode. The village was dependent on fishing for many centuries until the 19th century when it started to transform itself into a seaside resort, following the pattern set by similar towns in the United Kingdom. In 1828 the first resort was inaugurated. Thereafter many notable persons would visit Zandvoort, including Elisabeth of Bavaria in 1884 and 1885. In the middle of the same century, potato cultivation started in the dunes.

In 1881 the railway station near the coast opened, followed by tram connection to Haarlem in 1899, which greatly increased the beach tourism. In 1905 one of the earliest Dutch fictional films was shot in the town, De mésaventure van een Fransch heertje zonder pantalon aan het strand te Zandvoort. During World War II, Zandvoort was heavily damaged. On May 23, 1942, beach access was no longer permitted and several months later the town was almost completely vacated. Resorts and avenues were demolished to make way for the coastal fortifications of the Atlantic Wall.

After the war, the town's growth accelerated, matching the growth in tourism. In 1948, Circuit Zandvoort was built, hosting the Dutch Grand Prix for several decades, until 1985. The Dutch GP returned in 2021, in the 2021 Formula One World Championship. Zandvoort continues to be a major Dutch resort location, where nearly half of all employment is related to tourism. The Dutch singer Willem Duyn's De Eerste Trein Naar Zandvoort ("First train to Zandvoort"), modeled on the American song Chattanooga Choo Choo and chronicling chaos and mayhem on the first seaside train, was a hit in the summer of 1983.

Zandvoort has a station, with half-hourly services to Haarlem and Amsterdam, with extra services from Haarlem during the summer. The station is Zandvoort aan Zee railway station.

The municipal council of Zandvoort consists of 17 seats, which are divided as follows since 2022:^[5]

• William Merritt Chase (1849–1916) American Impressionist Painter painted his masterpiece entitled "Sunlight and Shadow" in Zandvoort. It hangs in the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska.
• Lovis Corinth (1858–1925) German artist and writer, painter and printmaker died of pneumonia in Zandvoort having made a final visit to see his favourite Dutch masters
• Bep Schrieke (1890–1945) politician and academic
• Lou Bandy (1890–1959) Dutch singer and conferencier
• Anne Frank (1929–1945) Jewish diarist and victim of the Holocaust, and her family used to regularly visit Zandvoort in the summer.^[9]
• Shirley Zwerus, stage name Shirley (born 1946) singer and pianist
• Hans Willem Blom (born 1947) Professor of Social and Political Philosophy at Erasmus University
• Stella Maessen (born 1953) singer, participated in the Eurovision Song Contests of 1970, 1977 and 1982