Panorama of the port houses of Huizen

View in large.

The history of Huizen goes way back. Already in 1382, for the first time, mentioned the village Huussem. Other than in neighboring places, there were in Huizen stone houses, in place of the usual turf huts. The stone houses Huizen very likely owes its name.

Although Huizen known as a fishing village, the population originally consisted of farmers, later Erfgooiers. The Erfgooiers had the right to the common use of land, the municipalities. The farms were around the Dutch Reformed Church, the oldest building of Huizen.

When Huizers in the seventeenth century started fishing, there was no harbor. However, the fishermen with their fishing boats pulled on the Zuiderzee. Fishing illegally unloaded them on a sandbank off the coast. With carts fish brought ashore by the water. In 1807 fish were legalized and there were plans for a port. Land was purchased from the Erfgooiers and in 1854 laid the first fishing boats in the harbor. Around the port risen fishing related businesses as a smokehouse and a shipyard. 1860s witnessed the Huizer fishing its greatest flowering, as many as 125 fishing boats went there every day to fill their nets. Fishing decreased steadily at the end of the nineteenth century. The final blow came in 1932, the Zuiderzee was closed with the construction of the dam.