Assen

Sister cities

• Bad Bentheim

History

The history of the capital of Drenthe can be traced back to at least 1258, when a new location had to be found for Marienkamp Abbey, which had originally been built near Coevorden as a penalty for the slaughter in 1227 of the army of the Bishop of Utrecht at the hands of Drenthe's peasants, in what has come to be known as the Battle of Ane – a battle, incidentally, in which the bishop was killed. His successor ordered the nunnery to be built as a penalty. As it was located in a barren peat area, which also happened to flood from time to time, a better location had to be found. A better and especially drier spot for the Cistercian abbey was found in an area known as Witten, where at the time only a few farms were located. Around it was village communities like Deurze, Witten and Peelo. The latter has a history which goes back to the times when Dolmens were built, but it is now situated between two new districts of Assen. The "relocated" abbey probably was erected in the 1260s, and over the centuries Assen developed around it. The abbey was built at what now is the Brink (i.e., the grassy area which serves as a symbolic municipal centre) of Assen. On the abbey site now stands the Drents Museum, which was built in 1882 as provinciehuis (i.e., the residence of the provincial government). Only the abdijkerk (abbey church), the grounds, and bits and pieces of walls remind us of the religious beginnings of the city. The coat of arms is directly borrowed from the seal of the abbey. It is just like the coat of arms of the province of Drenthe - in both cases Mary with child - but Jesus switches to the other knee. The history of the city is connected with the provincial governing board: around 1600, the abbey property was secularised. Marienkamp no longer existed, but the…