The Pingjumer Gulden Halsband (Gold Collar of Pingjum) is an inner dike that once protected the village of Pingjum from the waters of the Marne, an inlet of the Wadden Sea. There are many stories of the destruction caused by the flood that hit Zeeland in 1953. Yet few people know that Friesland suffered equally severe flooding in 1825. On the night between 3 and 4 February 1825, the Frisian dikes were breached during a violent westerly storm, but Pingjum was spared. The construction of more effective sea dikes and eventually the building of the Afsluitdijk, meant that inner dikes such as the Gold Collar of Pingjum were no longer needed as an additional water barrier. In fact, parts of the dike were dismantled. Fortunately, the parts that remain, together with the polders and meadows near this ancient dike, are now protected as a municipal monument. Click here for details of a walk of almost 15 kilometres through this historic landscape.
