Domburg

Beautiful fresh air, swim or surf it's all happening at Domburg Noordduine. Domburg is a seaside resort on the North Sea, on the northwest coast of Walcheren in the Dutch province of Zeeland. It is a part of the municipality of Veere, and lies about 11 km northwest of the city of Middelburg, the provincial capital. Starting 1834 Domburg became a seaside resort offering a bathing cure and facilities. A small Badpaviljoen was built shortly after on top of the dunes, which was replaced by a larger one in 1888 which offered space for gentleman playing billiards and ladies drinking tea, a concert room, a seaview veranda and more of such amenities that beach life requires. Most important for its development was however the arrival of a railway station at Flushing and a connecting steamship service with England. A considerable British influence in these years was responsible for Domburg establishing the second golf-course in the Netherlands, although it never expanded over a friendly nine holes.

Like in so many seaside resorts at the end of the 19th century a flock of European royalty landed at Domburg for a few years when the resort was fashionable only to move along again a few years later. Instrumental however in the mythology of the place and the mentioned fashion was the very successful doctor Johan Georg Mezger who achieved international fame for his scientific approach of physiotherapy. Domburg is perhaps best known for its hosting of a group of artists of which Piet Mondraan or Mondrian is the best known. His Pier and Ocean painting was inspired by the same location where James McNeil Whistler painted the Domburg sea with its characteristic piers which do not cater for the happy crowd but are meant to break waves that may damage the dunes and thus the existence of the place.