The beach was first a place of misfortune

Millions of people like to flock to the beach in the summer, taking advantage of the warm weather and splashing in the waves.

But it was not always this way. Up until the 18th century, the beach created fear and anxiety. The coast was thought of as dangerous - it was where shipwrecks and natural disasters occurred. In classical mythology, a prominent theme was the wrath of the ocean. The beach was seen as a place of misfortune, where you found pirates and bandits, the Black Death and smallpox.