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Scheveningen is a sea-side resort on the North Sea coast of South Holland. Today, Scheveningen is part of Den Haag ('s-Gravenhage).

The earliest reference to the name Sceveninghe goes back to around 1280. The first inhabitants may have been of Anglo Saxon or Scandinavian origin. Fishing was the main source of food and income. The Battle of Scheveningen was fought between English and Dutch fleets off the coast of the village on 10 August 1654. Throughout the centuries, Scheveningen was frequently hit by storms. After one of the storms, in 1894, it was decided to build a harbour. Until then, the fishing ships had a flat bottom (bomschuiten), and were pulled upon the beach. When the harbor had been constructed in 1904, more modern ships replaced the bomschuiten. The picturesque village attracted many Dutch artists over the centuries, to paint the bomschuiten drawn up on the beach, or fishermen at work in the North Sea. Notable painters who recorded the village include Adrian van de Velde, Simon de Vlieger and Hendrik Willem Mesdag, whose enormous panorama, 14 m high and 120 m around, preserves the view of Scheveningen in 1881.

In 1818 a wooden building was constructed on a dune near the sea, from where people could bathe from 4 separate rooms. It marked the start of Scheveningen as a bathing place. Since then, Scheveningen has attracted numerous tourists from all over Europe.

During the period of the German occupation of the Netherlands, The Nazis used the prison of Scheveningen to imprison political opponents (who nicknamed the prison 'Oranje Hotel'). Today, the United Nations Detention Unit at Scheveningen is used for pre-trial confinement and as prison of the International Criminal Court and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

The Kurhaus hotel [left] was originally built in 1884–1885 and was rebuilt after a fire in 1886–1887. The Kurhaus was designed by the german architects Johann Friedrich Henkenhaf and Friedrich Ebert. In 1975 the building was put under monumental protection. After a renovation it was reopened in 1979.

In chess, the 'Scheveningen Variation' (1.e4 c5, 2.Nf3 d6, 3.d4 cxd4, 4.Nxd4 Nf6, 5.Nc3 e6) is a variation of the chess opening known as the 'Sicilian Defense', first played in a tournament in Scheveningen.