Zutphen (old alternate spelling: Zutfen) is a municipality and a town in the province of Gelderland in the Netherlands on the right bank of the IJssel at the influx of the Berkel, and a junction station 29 km by rail N.N.E. of Arnhem.

Population centres

• Warken
• Warnsveld
• Zutphen

The city of Zutphen

Introduction

Zutphen is a modern small city, with about 36,500 inhabitants. The old centre survived the war almost entirely, though some parts of the city were lost. The centre features a very interesting shopping area and many old, monumental buildings, including one of the biggest and oldest churches of the country.

Stores are opened from 9:30 to 18:00 on weekdays, on Friday evening until 21:00 and on Saturday until 17:00. Some stores open earlier, and the larger supermarkets are usually open until 20:00.

Juridical city

Zutphen houses a major court, the national training center for judges and public prosecutors (SSR), the national police academy for senior police investigators, three prisons and a large number of lawyers. It is a highly important national and international juridical center.

Train connections

Zutphen is an important regional railway center. Twelve trains leave the station in five directions every hour: Apeldoorn, Deventer, Hengelo, Winterswijk and Arnhem. There are direct train connections with Zwolle, Nijmegen, 's-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch), Tilburg, Breda and Roosendaal. By changing once, you can get to almost all major cities throughout the country, such as Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam, The Hague, Groningen, and the Belgian cities of Antwerp and Brussels.

City ties

Zutphen has city-relations with Satu Mare (Romania), Tartu (Estonia), Shrewsbury (United Kingdom) and Villa Sandino (Nicaragua). Delegations including the mayors of the cities visit each other, and developmental aid programs are in place with three of the cities.

History

Zutphen is the 9th oldest city of the country. It received city rights in 1196. It is older than most of the major cities, such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. This explains its important position in the juridical system.

From an old 1911 encyclopedia

It is a picturesque old town with several brick houses of the 16th and 17th centuries. The most important building is the Grote Kerk, or St Walburg, which dates from the 12th century and contains monuments of the former counts of Zutphen, a 13th century candelabrum, an elaborate copper font (1527), and a fine modern monument to the Van Heeckeren family. The chapter-house contains a pre-Reformation library which includes some valuable MSS. and incunabula. There are some remains of the old town walls. About 5 km to the north of Zutphen is the agricultural colony of Nederlandsch-Mettray, founded by a private benefactor for the education of poor friendless boys in 1851, and since that date largely extended.

In the Middle Ages Zutphen was the seat of a line of counts, which became extinct in the 12th century. Having been fortified the town stood several sieges, specially during the wars of freedom waged by the Dutch, the most celebrated fight under its walls being the one in September 1586 when Sir Philip Sidney was mortally wounded. Taken by the Spaniards in 1587 by the treachery of the English commander Rowland York , Zutphen was recovered by Maurice, prince of Orange, in 1591, and except for two short periods, one in 1672 and the other during the French Revolutionary Wars, it has since then remained a part of the Netherlands. Its fortifications were dismantled in 1874.

Warnsveld

Warnsveld is a town east of Zutphen. Until 2005, Warnsveld was a separate municipality with a population of about 9000, together with the village of Warken.

Warnsveld's Martinuskerk (Church of Saint Martin) was probably built as early as the 9th or 10th century. The first mention of the name Warnsveld in writing is from the year 1121.

Warnsveld has a 'partnership' with the German town Horstmar.

External link

Official website