Apeldoorn n : a city of east central Netherlands; a popular tourist center and site of the summer residence of the Dutch royal family

This article is about the city. For the insurance company, see Centraal Beheer.

Apeldoorn () is a municipality and a town in the province of Gelderland, about 60 miles east of Amsterdam, in central Netherlands. It is a regional centre. The western half of the municipality lies on the Veluwe ridge, the eastern half lies in the IJssel valley; the neighbourhood is very picturesque and well wooded. Fred de Graaf of the VVD is the mayor of Apeldoorn.

Population centres

Very small hamlets are printed in italics.

• Apeldoorn (see below)
• Assel
• Beekbergen: a village 6 km south of Apeldoorn, with a beautiful old church, camping-sites and a few hotels
• Beemte-Broekland, north of Apeldoorn
• Engeland, west of Beekbergen
• Groenendaal, along the A50 motorway Apeldoorn - Arnhem
• Hoenderloo, 8 km south-west of Apeldoorn, along the road to Ede, near the Hoge Veluwe National Park
• Hoog Soeren, beautifully situated amidst the Veluwe forest; there is a romantic church, where marriages are performed; between Hoog Soeren and Uddel lies the former hunting lodge het Aardhuis, which was used by the Dutch Royal Family in the 19th and 20th century
• Hooilanden
• Klarenbeek, east of Lieren, partially in the municipality of Voorst
• Lieren
• Loenen, this village, 5 km south-east of Beekbergen, has a castle ("Ter Horst"), a cardboard factory and an artificial "waterfall"
• Nieuw-Milligen, about 10 km in the direction of Amersfoort, consists of an army training centre, some camping sites and some scattered houses and farms
• Oosterhuizen
• Radio Kootwijk
• Uddel, a farmer's village 10 km north-west of Apeldoorn, where pigs and calves are raised; the majority of its population is known to belong to very orthodox Protestant Churches; the area between Uddel, Nunspeet and Putten is sometimes called one of the Dutch Bible Belts
• Ugchelen, formerly a village of its own, now an outer area of Apeldoorn, still having its own character
• Wenum-Wiesel, with an old water-mill; situated 5 km north of Apeldoorn
• Woudhuizen, now at the eastern border of Apeldoorn. There is an outer area in Apeldoorn called "Woudhuis" and there is a small forest, called "Woudhuizer Bos"
• Zilven, the northern edge of Loenen.

The town of Apeldoorn

The oldest known reference to Apeldoorn, then called Appoldro, dates from the 8th century. The settlement came into being at the point where the old road from Amersfoort to Deventer crossed that from Arnhem to Zwolle. A 1740 map refers to it as Appeldoorn.

Close by is the favourite country-seat of the royal family of the Netherlands called the palace het Nieuwe Loo (now Het Loo). It was originally a hunting-lodge of the dukes of Gelderland, but in its present form dates chiefly from the time of the then Stadtholder William III of England (1685-1686). The oldest sister of the Dutch Queen, Princess Margriet, lives nearby the palace Het Loo, with her husband Pieter van Vollenhoven.

Apeldoorn was a relatively insignificant town until the major building projects of the 19th century and those of the period following World War II . The Protestant church was restored after a fire in 1890. Apeldoorn possesses large paper-mills, many offices ( Centraal Beheer, an insurance company ; the Dutch Tax services; the "Kadaster", the governmental service that registrates land ownership; and some more), a newspaper editing company, some hospitals and nursing homes.

Apenheul is a zoo which hosts a number of different types of apes and monkeys, some of which are free to walk around the visitors. It is situated at the western edge of the city and can easily be reached by local bus.

There's also an amusement park situated in Apeldoorn, called the Koningin Juliana Toren (Queen Juliana Tower). It is sited nearby the Apenheul and lies on the road to Hoog Soeren. It is called the Koningin Juliana Toren because of the tower, which was built in 1910 and was later named after Queen Juliana.

Sport

Apeldoorn houses the professional footballclub AGOVV Apeldoorn (Jupiler League), that plays its matches in the Sportpark Berg & Bos stadium in the western part of Apeldoorn. But the most successful club in Apeldoorn is the Piet Zoomers/Dynamo volleybalteam, who are the last years' champion in the Dutch A-League. Because of the immense growth of Apeldoorn and the interest for sport, Apeldoorn is building a new stadium for Piet Zoomers/Dynamo and for track cycling: the Omnisportcentrum. The Omnisportcentrum can host international track cycling games and volleyball games. In the same area, the eastern part of Apeldoorn, there have been plans for a figure skating stadium.

Miscellaneous information

The southwestern corner of the municipality is part of the Hoge Veluwe National Park. It is the final Battle Honour of The Royal Canadian Regiment who took part in the towns liberation in World War II.

The highest hill in the municipality of Apeldoorn is de Torenberg, which is 107, 1 metres high.

The City of Burlington, Canada is a partnercity of Apeldoorn.

There has been signed an agreement for economic coöperation with the city of Yichang in China.

The American composer Mary Jeanne van Appledorn (b. 1927) has roots in Apeldoorn (her great-grandparents came to the United States from the Netherlands, and changed the spelling of their name). She visited the city in 1982. The political scientist and academic Arend Lijphart was born in Apeldoorn. Apeldoorn advanced a team to the 2007 Little League World Series.

Palace Het Loo

Paleis Het Loo reflects the historical ties between the House of Orange-Nassau and the Netherlands. The central part of the palace and the lateral pavilions show how the palace was inhabited by the House of Orange for three centuries starting with the King Stadtholder William III up to and including Queen Wilhelmina.

In November 1684 Prince William III of Orange, then Stadtholder of Gelderland, purchased Het Loo with the intentions of building a palatial hunting lodge somewhere on the property. On April 5, 1685 the first contract was tendered and in September of the same year the stonework of the middle section (or corps de logis) of what came to be known as Het Loo was completed. In 1686, the year given on the facade of the building, the wings, originally linked by colonnades to the corps de logis were added, the walls were built and the gardens were laid out.

Het Loo became the favorite hunting seat and country palace of William III and his wife Princess Mary II, and until his death in 1702 furnishings and decorations both inside and outside underwent repeated alterations and embellishments. At that time symmetry was considered ideal and the design for the building and grounds featured a central axis with mirror image components on either side. Inside the palace the axis consisted of the Entrance Hall, the Staircase and the Great Hall on the first floor. West and east of the Great Hall respectively were the apartments of William III and Mary II. The apartments of the courtiers and the Dining Room were on the ground floor.

In 1689 William III became King of Britain and this elevation of his position and power brought an enlargement of Het Loo in its wake. Between 1691 and 1694 the colonnades which linked the corps de logis to the wings on either side were replaced by four pavilions. These pavilions contained the new apartments of William III and Mary II, a new Dining Room, a Long Gallery and a Chapel. Queen Mary did not return to Holland after 1689 and never saw the enlargement.

On the death of King William III in 1702 there was disagreement about his inheritance, but eventually, in 1732, Het Loo descended to Willem IV (1711-1751) who was, from 1747, Stadtholder of all the provinces. Both Willem IV and his son Willem V (1748-1806) used the palace in the 18th century as a summer residence.

References

In May 2005, in honour of the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII and the part played in the liberation of the town by Canadian forces, a plaque was unveiled with great ceremony by Canadian and Dutch officials. Canadian war veterans, many in their eighties, were present for the dedications and parades. Both the Dutch and Canadian national anthems were played. The streets of Apeldoorn were filled with children giving flowers to the veterans acknowledging them as heroes.

External links

• Official website
• Digital city of Apeldoorn
• website for youngsters
• Going out in Apeldoorn
• Museum in Apeldoorn
• Local newspaper
• Glossy Magazine Eigen Magazine about Apeldoorn
• Theatre Apeldoorn
• Global Design Agency wijontwerpen bno located Apeldoorn

Multimedia

• CBC Archives - CBC Radio (April 22, 1945) reporting on the famine in Apeldoorn and the inflation of food prices.