Eindhoven historyEindhoven received its “city rights” in the year 1232, when the town consisted of just 170 houses. It had a castle and a city wall, however. Between then and 1583 Eindhoven was attacked, overtaken and destroyed several times by the neighboring communities and the Spaniards. The city walls were destroyed after the last siege. In 1820 the first hardened road was built between the Dutch cities of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (also known as Den Bosch), Eindhoven, and the Belgian city of Liege. Further improvements in the infrastructure made it possible for the people of Eindhoven to trade with cities further away and new businesses and companies quickly sprung up everywhere, mainly textile, tobacco and wood companies. In 1891 the most important business in the city of Eindhoven opened its doors, Philips. You might know Philips from their TV’s, but the company started out as a textile and light bulb factory. The textile wasn’t that special, because there were more textile factories in the area, but the development and manufacturing of the light bulbs made sure Philips grew very fast. The factories rapidly expanded their capacity, which attracted more people to the city, and by 1920 the city of Eindhoven had a population of some 45,000 people. You could say the city reached its current size because of Philips. In the 1920s, Eindhoven was made up mostly of Philips factories and specific housing for Philips employees, which you can still easily recognize in today’s Eindhoven (just ask the locals for “Philips neighborhoods”).  Another reason the population grew fast was that the city limits were expanded to include the surrounding towns, which were made into Eindhoven neighborhoods during this period. Their names are now names of districts, such as “Acht” and “Woensel”. During the Second World War Eindhoven was bombed heavily, and parts of the city were completely destroyed. The rebuilding process was used to create a larger infrastructure. Some really large and wide avenues in the downtown area show this change, like the John F. Kennedylaan near the train station. After this period a number of new neighborhoods were built, but large green areas were conserved. This resulted in Eindhoven being the ‘greenest’ city in the top 10 largest cities of the Netherlands today. Because of these fairly recent changes to the city, and the industrial character it has developed over the years, you would not want to visit Eindhoven for its beautiful medieval buildings, because they are hard to find. Eindhoven does offer new technological development, art, industrial history, sports, education and nightlife, however. Related articles about EindhovenReturn to the Holland-Travel-Guide.com homepage |