Zoetermeer
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Zoetermeer (population: 115,913 in February 2005) is a city in the western
Netherlands, in the province of
South Holland. The municipality covers an area of 37.06
km² (of which 2.15 km² is water). "Zoetermeer", translated into English, means "Sweet Lake". When the building of the city is completed in a few years, Zoetermeer will be the third-biggest city in the province of
South Holland, after
Rotterdam and
The Hague.
There is a tramway under reconstruction now, formerly one of the two
railway lines in Zoetermeer. This tramway is part of the
RandstadRail project between The Hague, Rotterdam and Zoetermeer. There are two stations in use on the main railway between The Hague and Utrecht.
Zoetermeer is built next to the highway A12 between The Hague and Utrecht.
Zoetermeer is a town divided into 10 parts called "stadswijken". Every part of the town has at least one shopping mall and a train-station (see above at "Transport").
These parts have the following names (in brackets the year the part was designated, although some of the parts already existed before designation):
*Buytenwegh de Leyens (1974)
*Dorp (1962)
*Driemanspolder (1965)
*Meerzicht (1969)
*Noordhove (1986)
*Oosterheem (1999)
*Palenstein (1966)
*Rokkeveen (1987)
*Seghwaert (1975)
*Stadscentrum (1978)
Zoetermeer has a lot of parks all over the town, the biggest one is the "Westerpark" in the westside of the town. It's almost as big as Central Park, NYC. There's also the "Buytenpark", the "Westerpark", the "Binnenpark", the "Van Tuyllpark, the "Hoekstrapark", the "Wilhelminapark", the "
Floriadepark", the "Seghwaertse Hout" and the "Seghwaertpark".
Zoetermeer is a so called
ICT-city and it means Zoetermeer has a modern infrastructure, a lot of schools that offer ICT-related job. Also 20% of the population of Zoetermeer already has an ICT-related job. The municipality of Zoetermeer appropriates a comparatively large part of the budget to PC's for schools.
Virtual Zoetermeer is a game made by the municipality of Zoetermeer. It makes you rebuild the city of Zoetermeer. It kind of looks like SimCity and is in
Dutch. You can download it
here.
Between the years 900 and 1000 Zoetermeer began as a very small village with farmers and fishermen. Until the 17th century there was a lake, called the Zoetermeer (the Sweet lake). Somewhere in the 13th century the still existing village center was formed, now called the Dorpsstraat. Until 1935 the village center we know today was actually split into two villages, Zoetermeer and Zegwaard. The inhabitants of the village of Zegwaard were poorer than those in Zoetermeer. Nowadays, the name Seghwaert (older way of spelling of Zegwaard) is used for one of the quarters (wijken) outside the old village center. Zoetermeer began to grow slightly when the first train service came around 1868. A few decades later the Nutricia factory started on the roots near the station. The real growth started in 1966, when there was a high need of houses from people around The Hague. From then they started to build new quarters around the old village center, so Zoetermeer began to grow and became a city in the meantime.
Although Zoetermeer nowadays has the image of a modern city, there are still remains of the past. Like the old village center with its small houses and the church with late medieval 15th century clock tower (on picture, wooden top from 1642), and the old farms, surrounded by modern houses nowadays
Zoetermeer houses the only
Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Netherlands. It is called The Hague Temple, and located in the old city center.[
1]
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Official website (Dutch)*http://www.plattegronden.nl/zoetermeer/
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Smaller map, but with urban bus lines*
Maps and diagrams on railway to The Hague*
ICT Academy*
The Den Haag Temple*
Zoetermeer in Beeld (Dutch)
