De Zilk

The Zilk is known by people in the region for many activities such as carnival, fun fair and the bulb flowering period. During carnival, for example, different floats are designed every year by carnival association De Duinknijnen. Also the popular flower mosaics that seem to return more colourfully every year. De Zilk is a small, charming village with plenty of fun, music and culture. It is a close-knit community where residents take a lot of initiative to keep the village alive. For example, the proceeds from the annual flea market are donated to Youth Work De Zilk and there is a Party Committee Foundation.

Historically, the main economic factor in Zilk has been bulb growing. There are still mainly three flowers grown: hyacinths, daffodils and tulips. There used to be talk of the 'Kleine Zilk', where the bulb companies were located, and the 'Grote Zilk', the neighborhoods where workers lived. Besides bulb growing, De Zilk has a small village centre with one neo-Gothic Catholic church, The Sacred Heart of Jesus Church. In WWII, De Zilk had an emergency airfield for Dutch aircraft. The photo above shows wrecks of Dutch fighter planes in the May days of 1940.

The history of the area goes back to the ice age, where the glaciers melted and sand walls were created by erosion of wind and weather. At De Zilk, a small wall was created near the Zilkerduinweg. Eventually, more and more sand walls were connected to the west of that road until the area formed a dune area. The name 'Zilk' derives from the 'De Zillic', a name that first appeared in 1399. The name is probably derived from the salty water, because this area regularly flooded with water during high tide. The water that remained after the flood lost its salinity and became saline. Hence the degeneration from Zillic to De Zilk.