DEN VEN VUURTOREN
Enkhuizen, Netherlands
I was thinking how odd this one looked and that I sure hoped that little yapping dog wasn't going to bite me. I had found Oosterleek and had a pleasant drive up to Enkhuizen to find this one called De Ven. Didn't much care for the fence around it like that but I guess it is necessary to keep folks out. Generally when you see a straight object, or one you know is straight, in a photograph and it looks bent or curved, this is caused by using a very wide angle lens and framing the straight object to the side of the picture. It is known as parallax error. However, this particular tower appears to bend much more than other straight towers that I photographed. I cannot account for it. I did learn that it was built in 1699 which explains its appearance. A converted vuurtoren. Take off the lantern and imagine a small bonfire on the flat platform top of the structure. Like Plompetoren, Goedereede, West Kapelle Hoog, and a near identical twin, Katwijk, built in 1605.
This one stands 14 meters high and can be seen about 11 nautical miles out at sea. That sea now being the Ijsselmeer. Look at the picture below and you can see the difference between the water side and the land side. The dike is at least 10 feet high.
This vuurtoren is listed as the Enkhuizen light but you have to drive west on N302 from Enkhuizen and turn right at the road to Andijk. When you get out to Andijk you'll come to the dike and turn right and go through Oosterdijk, following the dike to De Ven. There is parking off the street by the lighthouse.
Here's how I
saw it:
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OF THE MOUNTAINS
John B Caddell
Copyright 2001