Egmond aan Zee Beach at Lighthouse

The village of Egmond aan Zee is said to have come into being behind the dunes in the year 977. The story goes that one Walgerus, a gentleman farmer from Egmond-Binnen would have built ten houses for a number of poor families. They were allowed to live there free of charge, and had the right to fish in the sea, on the condition that they would hand over ten percent of their catch to the abbey at Egmond-Binnen. He is also said to have founded the church that is now the Old Catholic St Agnes Church. He would have built the church in honour of Saint Agnes.

Egmond aan Zee then developed into a real fishing village. Around the year 1400 the so-called Pinck came into existence, a flat-bottomed vessel of around 5.5 by 2.5 metres. The little ship was built over seams with a completely flat bottom, so that it could be transported on rollers from the boat shed to the beach.

Due to erosion of the coast, fifty houses from Egmond aan Zee disappeared into the sea during the Allerheiligen flood on 1 November 1570. During the Christmas storm in November 1741, 36 houses and the church with its tower were swallowed up by the sea.

Egmond aan Zee was an independent municipality until 1 July 1978, and on that date it merged with the municipality of Egmond-Binnen to become Egmond. Since 1 January 2001, the municipality of Egmond has merged with the municipalities of Schoorl and Bergen to become the municipality of Bergen.