Former low light Breskens

This former guide light is located on the Spuiplein in Breskens. This is not his original place.

It dates from 1906 and is 11m high.

On April 19, 1839, the Netherlands and Belgium signed the 'Divorce Treaty' whereby Belgium became independent from the Netherlands. That treaty included rules about free and unimpeded navigation on the Scheldt , the way in which the pilotage service was to be carried out and how the beaconing on and along the Scheldt was to be arranged.

In 1867 , the tender was issued for the construction of a cast-iron lighthouse and a cast-iron light tower on the seawall at Nieuwe Sluis . The two lights formed a line of lights for the Wielingen fairway, which forms the southern entrance to the Western Scheldt. In 1868 the lights at Nieuwe Sluis were switched on for the first time.

The low light was originally a hexagonal, openwork cast-iron light stand, which stood at 't Killetje in the hamlet of Nieuwe Sluis . The turret was about 9.5 meters high. Because the high light was raised in 1906, the low light also had to be higher. The cast-iron turret was then demolished and replaced by a new light curb, with a height of 11.2 metres.

The light line was extinguished at the beginning of the Second World War. The low light was never lit again after that.

Willem Vandenameele