Beverwijk

Geschiedenis

Beverwijk is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. The town is located about northwest of Amsterdam in the Randstad metropolitan area, north of the North Sea Canal very close to the North Sea coast. A railway tunnel and two motorway tunnels cross the canal between Beverwijk and the nearby city of Haarlem on the south bank.Around 1640, a town called Beverwyck was founded in the Dutch colony of New Netherland. This town's modern name is Albany, New York.Population centresThe municipality of Beverwijk consists of two cores, Beverwijk proper and Wijk aan Zee, 5km to the west, right on the coast.HistoryThe name Beverwijk comes from Bedevaartswijk, meaning "pilgrimage neighbourhood". The town formed at the Saint Agatha Church which was a pilgrimage location in the Middle Ages. Allegedly Agatha of Sicily appeared there in the 9th century to a virgin from Velsen who was fleeing from the Count of Kennemerland.In 1276 Beverwijk was granted market rights by Floris V, and in 1298 it was granted city rights by John I, both Counts of Holland.