Radio Kootwijk

Special building in a special place. Be sure to drive by

Very cool cycling environment. Special building that you can see in the rolling landscape.

From both sides it is great to drive over the Radioweg to the monumental building of Radio Kootwijk.

Amazing old Radiostation in the middle of nowhere. The building is inspired by the famous Egypt Sfinx, and that's clearly visible. It's one of the most famous buildings in the area and even starred in a sci-fi Hollywood movie!

Beautiful old radio building, used back in the colonial times to makes long distances calls and transmissions back and forth to Indonesia (Nederlands Indie back then).

Beautiful cathedral of the radio. In the middle of the quiet heather.

Oldest radio and telephone station in the Netherlands

Oldest radio and telephone station in the Netherlands

Oldest radio and telephone station in the Netherlands

Very beautiful setting and a special building to take in when you pass it.

Oldest radio and telephone station in the Netherlands

Oldest radio and telephone station in the Netherlands

Oldest radio and telephone station in the Netherlands

Interesting story about technology outdated by progress: Radio Kootwijk started as a Long Wave radio station for communication with Indonesia where such a station already existed. And in 1923 it was also successful for the first time.
However, the long wave required an enormous amount of energy (hence the 'ponds' that were therefore cooling basins), and the discovery of shortwave radio that needed a much smaller transmission station, and an even smaller receiver, sounded the death knell for the use of Radio Kootwijk as Long wave station (In WWII it was still used as one-way communication with submarines by the German occupier)
As a replacement, 3 small short-wave station buildings were built, of which the first communication with Indonesia took place in 1928, see: komoot.nl/highlight/2679905?utm_source=weekly-hl-742 for the commemoration thereof.