The Eierland Lighthouse is a
lighthouse on the northernmost tip of the
Dutch island of
Texel
Texel (; Texels dialect: ) is a municipality and an island with a population of 13,643 in North Holland, Netherlands. It is the largest and most populated island of the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. The island is situated north of ...
. It is named for the former island
Eierland
Eierland () is a former island in the Netherlands. It is now the northern part of the island of Texel. The name means "egg land", named for the seagull eggs that were collected on the island and sent to Amsterdam.
The island of Eierland was a p ...
.
History
The lighthouse was designed by
Quirinus Harder and construction began on 25 July 1863. The lighthouse was built on top of a 20-metre high
sand dune
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...
, and was lit on 1 November 1864. At that time, the distance from the lighthouse to the sea was 3 kilometres.
Initially the lighthouse had a
kerosene
Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning " wax", and was reg ...
lamp. The current (electrical) lamp is a 2000 watt Philips
fluorescent lamp
A fluorescent lamp, or fluorescent tube, is a low-pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light. An electric current in the gas excites mercury vapor, which produces short-wave ultraviolet li ...
, producing 2.85 million
candela
The candela ( or ; symbol: cd) is the unit of luminous intensity in the International System of Units (SI). It measures luminous power per unit solid angle emitted by a light source in a particular direction. Luminous intensity is analogous t ...
, and the light is focused with a number of
Fresnel lens
A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827) for use in lighthouses. It has been called "the invention that saved a million ships."
The design allows the ...
es. It has two automatically engaged spare lamps.
The lighthouse was originally red, but in the course of time that colour faded to pink. In 1977 the tower was covered with a red plastic coating. Since 1982 the lighthouse is a
Rijksmonument
A rijksmonument (, ) is a national heritage site of the Netherlands, listed by the agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE) acting for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.
At the end of February 2015, the Netherlands ...
.
During the
Georgian Uprising of Texel of April 1945 the lighthouse suffered heavy damage. It was repaired by constructing a new wall around it and a new upper-level construction. In this process the lighthouse lost two of its original nine storeys.
During the 1990s the lighthouse, including the very top and the lamp, was open for visitors. Closed for a while, it was reopened in 2009 and is accessible up to the sixth floor.
See also
*
List of lighthouses in the Netherlands
Gallery
File:Vuurtoren Eierland 1.jpg, Lens
File:Vuurtoren Eierland 2.jpg, View to the west
File:Vuurtoren Eierland 3.jpg, View to the east (Vlieland
Vlieland (; fry, Flylân) is a municipality and island in the northern Netherlands. The municipality of Vlieland is the second most sparsely populated municipality in the Netherlands, after Schiermonnikoog.
Vlieland is one of the West Frisian ...
)
File:Vuurtoren Eierland 4.jpg, Lens and lamp from below
File:Vuurtoren Eierland 5.jpg, Space between the old lighthouse and the new enclosure
References
*
External links
{{Authority control
Lighthouses completed in 1864
Lighthouses in North Holland
Rijksmonuments in North Holland
Tourist attractions in North Holland
Texel