Netherlands - Drenthe - Assen

Multiviews of Assen.

Sent by Joke from Assen, Netherlands.

Assen (Dutch: [ˈɑ.sə(n)] is a municipality and a city in the northeastern Netherlands, and is the capital of the province of Drenthe. It received city rights in 1809. Assen's main claim to fame is the TT Circuit Assen the motorcycle racing circuit, where on the last Saturday in June the Dutch TT is run. (read further)

Netherlands - Drenthe

Multiviews of Drenthe.

Sent by Chantal, a postcrosser from Netherlands.

This is from Wikipedia : Drenthe is a province of the Netherlands, located in the north-east of the country. The capital city is Assen. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and Germany (districts of Emsland and Bentheim) to the east.

Drenthe, unlike many other parts of the Netherlands, has been a sparsely populated rural area since medieval times. Except for some industry in Assen and Emmen, the lands in Drenthe are mainly used for farming.

Drenthe has been populated by people since prehistory. Artifacts from the Wolstonian Stage (150.000 years ago) are among the oldest found in the Netherlands. In fact it was one of the most densely populated areas of the Netherlands until the Bronze Age. Most tangible evidence of this are the dolmens (hunebedden) built around 3500 BC, 53 of the 54 dolmens in the Netherlands can be found in Drenthe, concentrated in the northeast of the province.

Drenthe was first mentioned in a document from the year 820, it was called Pago Treanth (district Drenthe). In archives from "Het Utrechts Archief" from 1024 to 1025 the "county Drenthe" is mentioned, when Emperor Henry II gave it to Bishop Adalbold II of Utrecht.

After long being subject to the Utrecht diocese, Bishop Henry of Wittelsbach in 1528 ceded Drenthe to Emperor Charles V of Habsburg, who incorporated it into the Habsburg Netherlands. When the Republic of the Seven United Provinces was declared in 1581, Drenthe became part of it, although it did not gain provincial status until January 1, 1796 due to its poverty.

Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, the Dutch government built a camp near the town of Hooghalen to accommodate German (Jewish) refugees. Ironically, during the Second World War, the German occupiers used the camp (which they named KZ Westerbork) as a "Durchgangslager" (transit camp). Many Dutch Jews, Sinti, Roma, resistance combatants and political adversaries were imprisoned before being transferred to other camps in Germany and Poland. Anne Frank was deported on the last train from Westerbork.

The name of this region is said to stem from *thrija-hantja "three lands".

Netherlands - Drenthe

Multiviews of Drenthe, a province of the Netherlands, located in the north-east of the country.

Sent by Heleen, a postcrosser from the Netherlands.

Netherlands - Emmen

Sent by Janny, a postcrosser from Holland. This postcard shows various spots in Emmen.

This is from Wikipedia : Emmen is a municipality and a town in the northeastern Netherlands.

A prime example of a planned city, Emmen arose from several small farming and peat-harvesting communities which have dotted the province of Drenthe since the Middle Ages. Traces of these communities can still be seen in the form of the villages of Westenesch, Noordbarge and Zuidbarge: they have a separate history and layout, but are surrounded by the suburbs and the centre of Emmen.

The expansion of the town did not happen until after the Second World War. Suburbs were built in a clockwise direction around the old centre of Emmen, starting with Emmermeer directly to the north, and followed by Angelslo (for which an old village of the same name was demolished), Emmerhout (famed at the time for being built in the forest, quite separate from the town), Bargeres, the Rietlanden and Parc Sandur. Construction of the last suburb, called Delftlanden, has only recently begun, with the streets laid out and construction of houses and other buildings yet to begin.

There are few historic landmarks left within the town, but those few include the church on the market square, where a church has been standing since the Middle Ages, the court of law building, dating from the beginning of the twentieth century and the post office from the same time. In the town's environs an earthwork by Robert Smithson, "Broken Circle/Spiral Hill," may be found.

Prime economic booster since the 1980s is the zoo, the Dierenpark Emmen. Begun in the 1930s, it was almost completely redesigned in the 1970s, and is now co-owned by the municipality of Emmen. It attracts over 1.5 million visitors per year. Important industries include Teijin Aramid, DSM Engineering Plastics, Wellman and Diolen Industrial Fibers. There are extensive glasshouse complexes for horticulture, especially in the Klazienaveen-Erica area. The governmental Topographical Department of the Netherlands is located in Emmen. The municipality offers some 38,000 jobs.

Emmen is the second most populous urban area of Drenthe. Its municipality is one of the largest in the Netherlands, although the area outside the town borders of Emmen is rather rural. The only villages of importance are Emmer-Compascuum, Klazienaveen, Nieuw-Amsterdam and Schoonebeek.