The Time Path is a ten-kilometer historical discovery tour through the dunes near Castricum, created in collaboration with Oud-Castricum. Along 33 information points, you will learn about 2,500 years of history of this landscape, from Dunkirk privateers and the Romans to the Battle of Castricum and the Second World War.
A landscape with 2,500 years of history
The dune area near Castricum appears to be a tranquil nature reserve, but has undergone countless metamorphoses over the centuries. The Time Path brings this history to life via 33 viewpoints along the route, each dedicated to a different chapter of the past. Along the way, you pass a spot where Dunkirk privateers were once active, and you pass the site of the Battle of Castricum in 1799, the largest and bloodiest military encounter ever to take place in the Netherlands.
Art in the bunker
A remarkable story along the route concerns The Art Bunker, built commissioned by the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum in the early 1940s. The museum foresaw the war and wanted to safely store important artworks behind walls and a roof of one-and-a-half-meter-thick reinforced concrete. At the time, the bunker housed world-famous works by Vincent van Gogh and Rembrandt van Rijn, among others, including even The Night Watch on a temporary basis.
From dune forest to defense line
Along the way, you walk along small, quiet paths through one of the most beautiful dune areas in the Netherlands, with alternating pine forest, mixed forest, and open dune plains. The route also passes a section of the Anti-Tank Wall from World War II, part of the Atlantic Wall: a defensive line over five thousand kilometers long designed to prevent an Allied invasion. The walk is signposted with white triangles.
