The Kingdom of The Netherlands (Nederland in Dutch) is located on the southeast side of the North Sea and has a population of about 18 million. A small country with a long and illustrious maritime tradition, the Netherlands is home to a large number of historic lighthouses. For centuries fires were lit atop brick towers to guide returning Dutch sailors, and even today the traditional Dutch word for a lighthouse is vuurtoren (fire tower). The Netherlands is divided into twelve provinces (provincies), and the provinces are subdivided into municipalities (gemeenten). This page includes lighthouses of the southern part of the country, all but one in the province of Zeeland and one in the neighboring province of Noord-Brabant, This region includes the mouths of two of the great rivers of northwestern Europe: the Schelde and the Maas (Meuse). There is strong interest in the country in lighthouses and their preservation and many towers have been restored in recent years. Lighthouses in the Netherlands are maintained by the Rijkswaterstaat, the ministry of infrastructure and water management. In recent years there has been a movement to transfer some of the historic towers to the ownership of municipal authorities. The digraph IJ or ij acts as an additional letter in the Dutch alphabet. In Dutch vuurtoren is a lighthouse, lage licht is a front light, hoge licht is a rear light, lichthuis is a lantern room, lichtopstand is a smaller light beacon, baken is an unlit beacon, eiland is an island, ondiepte is a shoal or reef, baai is a bay, zeestraat is a strait, zeegat is an estuary or harbor mouth, kaap is a cape or headland, sluis is a lock, dijk is a dike, rivier is a river, and haven is a harbor. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. NL numbers are from the official Dutch list. U.K. Admiralty numbers are from volume B of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA numbers are from Publication 114. |
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Lighthouses of Zeeland (Zealand)
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![]() Hansweert Light, Reimerswaal, September 2022 Google Maps street view |
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Lighthouses of Noord Brabant (North Brabant)
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: South Holland | South: Belgium
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted January 23, 2005. Checked and revised January 30, 2025. Lighthouses: 18; lightships: 3. Site copyright 2025 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.