Petten (municipality of Zijpe)

betekenis & definitie

Village in the dunes. The village of Petten, which was more northwestern and was already mentioned in 739, disappeared into the sea in 1421. The second village washed away in 1625 and in the 18th century the third village was swallowed up. A further inland built and later impoverished fishing village was demolished on the orders of the German occupiers in 1944 (the tombstone is preserved and forms part of the current General Cemetery). The fifth and current village of Petten was designed in 1947 by mrs. E.F. van den Ban. The later expansion owes it to the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands (E.C.N.) established in the dunes in 1957 with the reactor center 'Euratom'.