Amersfoort

Sister cities

• Liberec

History

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. Remains of settlements dating to 1000 BC have been found in the Amersfoort area. The name Amersfoort, after a 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 Bishops of Utrecht established a court in order to control the "" 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-Vrouwentoren (Tower of Our Lady) is one of the tallest medieval church towers in the Netherlands at . When it was built, it was the middle point of The Netherlands, 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'). 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 RD coordinate system, the coordinate grid used by the Dutch topographical service: the RD coordinates are (155.000, 463.000). The inner…

Most-observed species

• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  60,845
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  56,186
• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  54,642
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  50,572
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  48,727
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  47,356
• Eurasian Coot

  Fulica atra Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  47,101
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  46,143

Most recent

• M 4.2 — 2011-09-08
  3 km ENE of Heijen, Netherlands
• M 3.3 — 2008-12-10
  4 km WSW of Wesel, Germany
• M 2.9 — 2008-10-11
  19 km WNW of Egmond aan Zee, Netherlands
• M 2.7 — 2008-08-07
  3 km NW of Alpen, Germany
• M 2.7 — 2007-03-19
  3 km WSW of Issum, Germany
• M 2.7 — 2003-03-01
  2 km WSW of Wesel, Germany