Map - Wijk aan Zee (Wijk aan Zee)

Wijk aan Zee ( literally Neighborhood at Sea) is a village on the coast of the North Sea in the municipality of Beverwijk, the province of North Holland of the Netherlands. The prestigious Tata Steel Chess Tournament (formerly called the Corus chess tournament or the Hoogovens tournament) takes place there every year.

Due to its seaside location, Wijk aan Zee has become a popular destination among tourists. This is reflected in the village economy, which consists of many bars and hotels.

In 1999, Wijk aan Zee named itself "Cultural Village of Europe", recognizing the special nature of village life in general. This was three years after the Danish village of Tommerup had claimed such a title, but this time a large project was to ensue.

Wijk aan Zee came together with villages from England, Estonia, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Germany, Denmark, The Czech Republic and Hungary in an effort to determine the role and future of villages in Europe, but also to help each other find ways to cope with difficulties that come to small communities nowadays. Each year, another one of these villages would bear the title of "Cultural Village of Europe".

During the last years, the Cultural Village project led to an increasingly refined picture of what villages have to offer and how to offer it. Simultaneously, this brought about a social critique that is relevant to urban areas as well. It has attracted the attention of the Dutch government, who asked one of the initiators of the project to write an essay about how to 'build' villages.

Recently, a Dutch journalist wrote a book about the project called 'Vital Villages', in which the thoughts and deeds of the 'village movement' are documented.