Petten could have been founded in 739. The name refers to the three wells "(Dutch: )" which are located there. There was already a mention of a sand dike in 1388 between Petten and 't Oghe (Callantsoog). In the St. Elizabeth's flood (1421), Petten was entirely washed away, and the dunes were damaged. A sleeper dike was built behind the dunes in 1432 and from 1506 active coastal defense took place, with pile heads of beams from Norway and Sweden and stone from Vilvoorde, Belgium. Even so, more than 100 houses were washed away in 1625, plus the church of Petten. The construction of the Hondsbossche zeewering began in 1793.