Introduction

Katwijk is located on the North Sea, northwest of Leiden and 16 km north of The Hague. The municipality lies along the Old river Rhine, which ends at the North Sea in Katwijk aan Zee. Katwijk municipality used to be three municipalities: Katwijk, Rijnsburg and Valkenburg. These three were merged in early 2006 into one municipality. Katwijk is now the largest town in the 'Dune and Bulb District'.