Editing Amersfoort (section)

== History ==
[[Hunter-gatherer|Hunter gatherers]] set up camps in the Amersfoort region in the [[Mesolithic]] period. Archaeologists have found traces of these camps, such as the remains of hearths, and sometimes microlithic flint objects, to the north of the city.

=== Antiquity ===
[[File:Koppelpoort Amersfoort 2008.jpg|thumb|[[Koppelpoort]]]]
[[File:Amersfoort, de Monnikendam RM8053 positie1 2012-12-08 11.14.jpg|thumb|Monnikendam]]
Remains of settlements dating to  1000&nbsp;BC have been found in the Amersfoort area. The name Amersfoort, after a [[ford (river)|ford]] in the Amer River, today called the [[Eem]], first appeared in the 11th century. The city grew around what is now the ''Hof'', where the [[Prince-Bishopric of Utrecht|Bishops of Utrecht]] established a court in order to control the "{{Interlanguage link multi|Gelderse Vallei|nl}}" area. It was granted city rights in 1259 by the bishop of Utrecht, [[Henry I van Vianden]]. A first defensive wall, made of brick, was completed around 1300 but expansion led to the construction of a new wall in 1380, which was completed around 1450. The [[Koppelpoort]], a combined land and water gate, is part of this second wall. The first wall was demolished and houses were built in its place. Today's ''Muurhuizen'' (wallhouses) Street is located where the first wall stood.

The ''[[Onze Lieve Vrouwetoren|Onze-Lieve-Vrouwentoren]]'' (Tower of [[Blessed Virgin Mary|Our Lady]])<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.skyscrapercity.info/100.php?id=4&bid=1185 |title= Onze Lieve Vrouwentoren |access-date= 26 March 2008 |publisher= SkyscraperCity |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070928003736/http://www.skyscrapercity.info/100.php?id=4&bid=1185 |archive-date= 28 September 2007 |df= dmy-all}}</ref> is one of the tallest medieval church towers in the Netherlands at {{convert|98|m|ft|0}}. When it was built, it was the middle point of The Netherlands,<ref>{{cite web |title=Wat te doen in Amersfoort? |date=30 June 2021 |url=https://www.wearetravellers.nl/europa/wat-te-doen-in-amersfoort-10-tips/ |publisher=Roëlle}}</ref> it was exactly built in the center and a reference for the Dutch grid system. The nickname of the tower is Lange Jan ('Long John').<ref>{{cite web |title=Amersfoort - Middle point of the Netherlands |url=http://www.onzelievevrouwetoren.nl/english/ |publisher=OnzeLieveVrouwenToren |access-date=16 April 2019 |archive-date=26 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211026045944/https://www.onzelievevrouwetoren.nl/english/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The construction of the tower and the church was started in 1444. The church was destroyed by an explosion in 1787, but the tower survived, and the layout of the church still can be discerned today through the use of different types of stone in the pavement of the open space that was created. It is now the reference point of the [[Geography of the Netherlands|RD coordinate system]], the coordinate grid used by the Dutch topographical service: the RD coordinates are (155.000, 463.000).

The inner city of Amersfoort has been preserved well since the [[Middle Ages]]. Apart from the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwetoren, the [[Koppelpoort]], and the ''Muurhuizen'' (Wall-houses), there is also the Sint-Joriskerk (Saint George's church), the canal-system with its bridges, as well as medieval and other old buildings; many are designated as national monuments. In the Middle Ages, Amersfoort was an important centre for the textile industry, and there were a large number of breweries. [[Jews]] also lived in Amersfoort in the Middle Ages, before being expelled from the province in 1546 and beginning to return to the city in 1655.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Jewish Community of Amersfoort |url=https://dbs.bh.org.il/place/amersfoort |publisher=The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot |access-date=17 June 2018 |archive-date=17 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180617093421/https://dbs.bh.org.il/place/amersfoort |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Origin of the ''Keistad'' ===
[[Image:Amersfoort, de Amersfoortse Kei foto6 2012-12-08 10.47.jpg|thumb|''Amersfoortse Kei'']]
The nickname for Amersfoort, ''Keistad'' (boulder-city), originates in the ''Amersfoortse Kei'', a {{convert|9|t|lb|0|lk=on|adj=on}} [[boulder]] that was dragged from the [[Soest, Netherlands|Soest]] moors into the city in 1661 by 400 people because of a bet between two landowners. The people got their reward when the winner bought everyone [[beer]] and [[pretzels]]. Other nearby towns then nicknamed the people of Amersfoort ''Keientrekker'' (boulder-puller). This story embarrassed the inhabitants, and they buried the boulder in the city in 1672, but after it was found again in 1903 it was placed in a prominent spot as a monument. There are not many boulders in the Netherlands, so it can be regarded as an icon.

=== Nieuw Amersfoort ===
[[File:RM8067 Westsingel 49 ab.jpg|thumb|The historic [[brasserie]] of Amersfoort, now a [[Rijksmonument]]]]
[[File:Netherlands, Amersfoort, map of 1865.JPG|thumb|left|Amersfoort in 1865]]
One of the six Dutch towns established in the 17th century in what is now [[Brooklyn]] was called "Nieuw Amersfoort" (New Amersfoort). The original patentees were [[Wolfert Gerritse van Couwenhoven|Wolfert Gerritse van Kouwenhoven]] and [[Andries Hudde]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/dutch-deed-fetches-more-than-a-handful-of-beads/|title=Dutch Deed Fetches More Than a Handful of Beads|last=Kilgannon|first=Corey|date=2007-11-01|website=City Room|language=en-US|access-date=2018-05-16}}</ref> Unlike other Dutch names which were retained up to the present, Nieuw Amersfoort is now called "[[Flatlands, Brooklyn|Flatlands]]".

In the 18th century, the city flourished because of the cultivation of [[tobacco]],<ref group="note">The Russian word for the tobacco ''[[Nicotiana rustica]]'', махорка (makhorka), may bear an etymological debt to this city. See the [http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/vasmer/43178/%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%85%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BA%D0%B0 dictionary of Max Vasmer.]</ref> but from about 1800 onwards began to decline.

The decline was halted by the establishment of the first railway connection in 1863, and some years later, by the building of a substantial number of infantry and cavalry barracks, which were needed to defend the western cities of the Netherlands.

After the 1920s, growth stalled again; in 1970, the national government designated Amersfoort, then numbering some 70,000 inhabitants, as a "growth city".

=== First World War ===
During the First World War, the area of Amersfoort with nearby [[Soesterberg]] and [[Zeist]] was one of the places in The Netherlands where many refugees from Belgium were sheltered. The "Belgenmonument", located in the vicinity of the former refugee camp Elisabethdorp, commemorates this period and the hardships of the Belgian refugees.

=== Second World War ===
[[File:Amersfoort-plaats-OpenTopo.jpg|thumb|Topographic map of Amersfoort, 2014]]
Since Amersfoort was the largest garrison town in the Netherlands before the outbreak of the [[World War II|Second World War]], with eight barracks, and part of the [[Grebbe line|main line of defence]], the whole population of then 43,000 was evacuated at the start of the invasion by the Germans in May 1940. After four days of battle, the population was allowed to return.

There was a functioning Jewish community in the town, at the beginning of the war numbering about 700 people. Half of them were deported and killed, mainly in [[Auschwitz]] and [[Sobibor extermination camp|Sobibor]]. In 1943, the [[synagogue]], dating from 1727, was severely damaged on the orders of the then Nazi-controlled city government. It was restored and opened again after the war, and has been served since by a succession of [[rabbi]]s.

There was a [[Nazism|Nazi]] [[concentration camp]] near the city of Amersfoort during the war. The camp, officially called ''Polizeiliches Durchgangslager Amersfoort'' (Police Transit Camp Amersfoort), better known as ''[[Kamp Amersfoort]]'', was actually located in the neighbouring municipality of [[Leusden]].

After the war the leader of the camp, Joseph Kotälla, served a life sentence in prison. He died in captivity in 1979. Some of the victims of the camp are buried in [[Rusthof cemetery]] near the town.

Among the victims were prisoners of war from the [[Soviet Union]], including 101 Central Asians, mostly [[Uzbeks]]. Locals would commemorate them, but the identity of the 101 soldiers was not known, until journalist Remco Reiding started investigating this case in 1999, after hearing about the cemetery. Amongst the few remaining people who witnessed the 101 soldiers is Henk Broekhuizen.<ref name=Soldat>[http://www.soldat.ru/search/f_glory/soldiers.html "Soviet Field of Glory"] {{in lang|ru}}</ref><ref name="BBC2017CentralAsians">{{cite news |author=Rustam Qobil |publisher=BBC |title=Why were 101 Uzbeks killed in the Netherlands in 1942? |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-39849088 |date=9 May 2017 |access-date=9 May 2017}}</ref>