Gelderland


Gelderland, also known as Guelders in English, is a province of the Netherlands, located in the central eastern part of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Netherlands by land area. Gelderland shares borders with six other provinces and the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
The capital is Arnhem ; however, Nijmegen and Apeldoorn are both larger municipalities. Other major regional centres in Gelderland are Ede, Doetinchem, Zutphen, Harderwijk, Tiel, Wageningen, Zevenaar, and Winterswijk. Gelderland had a population of 2,084,478 as of November 2019.

History

Historically, the province dates from states of the Holy Roman Empire and takes its name from the nearby German city of Geldern. According to the Wichard saga, the city was named by the Lords of Pont who fought and killed a dragon in 878 AD. They named the town they founded after the death rattle of the dragon: "Gelre!"
The County of Guelders arose out of the Frankish pagus Hamaland in the 11th century around castles near Roermond and Geldern. The counts of Gelre acquired the Betuwe and Veluwe regions and, through marriage, the County of Zutphen. Thus the counts of Guelders laid the foundation for a territorial power that, through control of the Rhine, Waal, Meuse and IJssel rivers, was to play an important role in the later Middle Ages. The geographical position of their territory dictated the external policy of the counts during the following centuries; they were committed to the interests of the Holy Roman Empire and to expansion south and west.
Further enlarged by the acquisition of the imperial city of Nijmegen in the 13th century, the countship was raised to a duchy in 1339 by the Holy Roman Emperor, Louis IV. After 1379, the duchy was ruled from Jülich and by the counts of Egmond and Cleves. The duchy resisted Burgundian domination, but William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg was forced to cede it to Charles V in 1543, after which it formed part of the Burgundian-Habsburg hereditary lands.
The duchy revolted with the rest of the Netherlands against Philip II of Spain and joined the Union of Utrecht. After the deposition of Philip II, its sovereignty was vested in the States of Gelderland, and the princes of Orange were stadtholders. In 1672, the province was temporarily occupied by Louis XIV and, in 1713, the southeastern part including the ducal capital of Geldern fell to Prussia. Part of the Batavian Republic, of Louis Bonaparte’s Kingdom of Holland, and of the French Empire, Gelderland became a province of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815.
During the Second World War, it saw heavy fighting between Allied Paratroopers, British XXX Corps and the German II SS Panzer Corps, at the Battle of Arnhem.

Culture

In Gelderland there are many museums, like the Netherlands Open Air Museum and Museum Arnhem in Arnhem, Valkhof Museum in Nijmegen, the Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn and in Otterlo the Kröller-Müller Museum. Some cities are also equipped with large theaters like the Musis sacrum in Arnhem, Concertgebouw de Vereeniging and Orpheus in Apeldoorn. The known by a larger public music venues are the Luxor Live and Doornroosje, and the GelreDome in Arnhem. these venues offer concerts from popular artist. every year the municipality Renkum and Overbetuwe receive a large amount of tourist visiting because of the Battle of Arnhem. Often historical locations are visited, like the John Frost Bridge and the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery in Oosterbeek.

Geography

Gelderland can roughly be divided into four geographical regions: the Veluwe in the north, the Rivierenland including the Betuwe in the southwest, the Achterhoek or Graafschap in the east and the city-region of Arnhem and Nijmegen in the centre-south.

Municipalities

In 2020, the 51 municipalities in Gelderland were divided into four COROPs:
These municipalities were merged with neighbouring ones:
These municipalities were merged and given a new name:

Economy

The Gross domestic product of the region was 78.3 billion € in 2018, accounting for 10.1% of the Netherlands economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 33,000 € or 110% of the EU27 average in the same year.

Cultural references

In the 2001 movie A Knight's Tale, the protagonist, William Thatcher pretends to be a knight known as "Ulrich von Lichtenstein from Gelderland".