Eindhoven
Eindhoven is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant, of which it is the largest municipality, and is also located in the Dutch part of the Campine natural region. With a population of 249,054 on a territory of 88.92 km2, it is the fifth-largest city of the Netherlands and the largest outside the Randstad conurbation.
Eindhoven was originally located at the confluence of the Dommel and the Gender. A municipality since the 13th century, Eindhoven witnessed rapid growth starting in the 1900s by textile and tobacco industries. Two well-known companies, DAF Trucks and Philips, were founded in the city; Philips would go on to become a major multinational conglomerate while based in Eindhoven. Apart from Philips, Eindhoven also contains the globally famous Design Academy Eindhoven.
Neighbouring cities and towns include Son en Breugel, Nuenen, Geldrop-Mierlo, Helmond, Heeze-Leende, Waalre, Veldhoven, Eersel, Oirschot and Best. The agglomeration has a population of. The metropolitan area consists of inhabitants. The city region has a population of 753,426. The Brabantse Stedenrij combined metropolitan area has about two million inhabitants.
Etymology
The name may derive from the contraction of the regional words eind and hove. Toponymically, eind occurs commonly as a prefix and postfix in local place- and street names. A "hove" comprised a parcel of land which a local lord might lease to private persons. Given that a string of such parcels existed around Woensel, the name Eindhoven may have originated with the meaning literally "last hoves on the land of Woensel" in Dutch language.Another explanation is that the Gender, one of the streams that flowed near Eindhoven, was once known as "Einde" or "Ende" and the name therefore could have come from "hove," with a similar meaning as above, on the stream "Einde." By this reasoning the city's name would mean something like "farmstead on the river Einde."
History
13th–15th centuries
The written history of Eindhoven started in 1232, when Duke Hendrik I of Brabant granted city rights to Eindhoven, then a small town right on the confluence of the Dommel and Gender streams. At the time of granting of its charter, Eindhoven had approximately 170 houses enclosed by a rampart. Just outside the city walls stood a small castle. The city was also granted the right to organize a weekly market and the farmers in nearby villages were obliged to come to Eindhoven to sell their produce. Another factor in its establishment was its location on the trade route from Holland to Liège.Around 1388, the city's fortifications were strengthened further. And between 1413 and 1420, a new castle was built within the city walls. In 1486, Eindhoven was plundered and burned by troops from Guelders.
16th–18th centuries
The reconstruction of Eindhoven was finished in 1502, with a stronger rampart and a new castle. However, in 1543 it fell again, its defense works having been neglected due to poverty.A big fire in 1554 destroyed 75% of the houses but by 1560 these had been rebuilt with the help of William I of Orange. During the Dutch Revolt, Eindhoven changed hands between the Dutch and the Spanish several times during which it was burned down by renegade Spanish soldiers, until finally in 1583 it was captured once more by Spanish troops and its city walls were demolished.
Eindhoven did not become part of the Netherlands until 1629. During the French occupation, Eindhoven suffered again with many of its houses destroyed by the invading forces. Eindhoven remained a minor city after that until the start of the Industrial Revolution.
19th century
The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century provided a major growth impulse. Canals, roads and railroads were constructed. Eindhoven was connected to the major Zuid-Willemsvaart canal through the Eindhovens Kanaal branch in 1843 and was connected by rail to Tilburg, 's-Hertogenbosch, Venlo and Belgium between 1866 and 1870. Industrial activities initially centred around tobacco and textiles and boomed with the rise of lighting and electronics giant Philips, which was founded as a light bulb manufacturing company in Eindhoven in 1891.Industrialisation brought population growth to Eindhoven. On the establishment of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815, Eindhoven had 2,310 inhabitants.
20th century
By 1920, the population was 47,946; by 1925 it was 63,870 and in 1935 that had ballooned to 103,030. The explosive growth of industry in the region and the subsequent housing needs of workers called for radical changes in administration, as the City of Eindhoven was still confined to its medieval moat city limits. In 1920, the five neighbouring municipalities of Woensel, Tongelre, Stratum, Gestel en Blaarthem and Strijp, which already bore the brunt of the housing needs and related problems, were incorporated into the new Groot-Eindhoven municipality. The prefix "Groot-" was later dropped.After the incorporation of 1920, the five former municipalities became districts of the Municipality of Eindhoven, with Eindhoven-Centrum forming the sixth. Since then, an additional seventh district has been formed by dividing the largest district, that of Woensel, into Woensel-Zuid and Woensel-Noord.
The early 20th century saw additions in technical industry with the advent of car and truck manufacturing company Van Doorne's Aanhangwagenfabriek which was later renamed to Van Doorne's Automobiel Fabriek and the subsequent shift towards electronics and engineering, with the traditional tobacco and textile industries waning and finally disappearing in the 1970s.
File:Cheering crowds line the streets as Cromwell tanks of 2nd Welsh Guards enter Eindhoven in Holland, 19 September 1944. BU945.jpg|thumb|left|People of Eindhoven watching Allied forces entering the city following its liberation from Axis forces on 19 September 1944.
A first air raid in World War II was flown by the RAF on 6 December 1942 targeting the Philips factory downtown, in which 148 civilians died, even though the attack was carried out on a Sunday. Large-scale air raids, including the bombing by the Luftwaffe on 19 September 1944 during Operation Market Garden, destroyed large parts of the city and killed 227 civilians while leaving 800 wounded. The reconstruction that followed left very little historical remains and the postwar reconstruction period saw drastic renovation plans in highrise style, some of which were implemented. At the time, there was little regard for historical heritage. During the 1960s, a new city hall was built and its Neo-gothic predecessor demolished to make way for a planned arterial road that never materialised.
The 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s saw large-scale housing developments in the districts of Woensel-Zuid and Woensel-Noord, making Eindhoven the fifth-largest city in the Netherlands.
21st century
At the start of the 21st century, a whole new housing development called Meerhoven was constructed at the site of the old airport of Welschap, west of Eindhoven. The airport itself, now called Eindhoven Airport, had moved earlier to a new location, paving the way for much-needed new houses. Meerhoven is part of the Strijp district and is partially built on lands annexed from the municipality of Veldhoven. Eindhoven has been named the world’s most relaxing city to live in 2026. It ranks first in top ten most relaxing cities in view of short commute times, least pollution, safety and healthcare.Geography
The villages and city that make up modern Eindhoven were originally built on sandy elevations between the Dommel, Gender and Tongelreep rivers. Beginning in the 19th century, the basins of the rivers themselves have also been used as housing land, resulting in occasional flooding in the city centre. Partly to reduce flooding, the bed of the Gender stream, which flowed directly through the city centre, was dammed off and filled up after the War, and the course of the Dommel was regulated. New ecological and socio-historical insights have led to parts of the Dommel's course being restored to their original states, and plans to have the Gender flow through the centre once again.The large-scale housing developments of the 20th century saw residential areas being built on former agricultural lands and woods, former heaths that had been turned into cultivable lands in the 19th century.
The city is currently divided into seven districts:
Climate
Eindhoven has an oceanic climate with slightly warmer summers and cooler winters than the coastal parts of the Netherlands. Its all-time record is set on 25 July 2019 and set on 13 January 1968, while winter lows have dipped below during extreme cold snaps. Although frosts are frequent in winter, there is no lasting snow cover in a normal winter due to the mild daytime temperatures.Demographics
Population
, the population of Eindhoven consisted of 372,720 people. Of these, 43% or some 104,804 people were of foreign descent in 2023.People are classified as being of foreign descent when they were born outside of the Netherlands, or when at least one of their parents was born outside of the Netherlands.
| Country/territory | Population |
 Inhabitants by originDistrictsOf all Eindhoven districts, the historical centre is by far the smallest in size and population, numbering only 5,419 in 2006. Woensel-Noord is the largest, having been the city's main area of expansion for several decades.Population figures for all districts, as of 1 January 2008, ranked by size:
The spiritual needs of the Eindhoven population are tended to by a steadily shrinking number of churches, two mosques and one synagogue. |