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.
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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.
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.
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 DistrictsOf 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: ReligionEindhoven is located in the southeast of the province of North Brabant. This area is historically Catholic and the population of Eindhoven was similarly mostly Catholic for a very long time until the late 1970s. However, the internationalizing influence of the university, Philips and other companies have created a more mixed population over the last few decades.The spiritual needs of the Eindhoven population are tended to by a steadily shrinking number of churches, two mosques and one synagogue. CrimeIn research by the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad based on the police's statistical data on crime rates, Eindhoven was found to have the highest crime rate in the Netherlands for 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2010. In 2011, Eindhoven has slipped down the list to number six.In 2009, in the Eindhoven agglomeration, the following numbers of crimes were recorded:
Languages
EconomyEindhoven has grown from a small town in 1232 to one of the biggest cities in the Netherlands with over 240,000 inhabitants in 2022. Much of its growth is due to Philips, DAF Trucks and Brabantia. Among recent high-tech companies based in Eindhoven are NXP Semiconductors, Sendcloud, and Signify.After the resurrection of the Netherlands in 1815 and the end of the Belgian Revolution, Eindhoven was a small village of some 1250 people in an economically backward and mostly agricultural area. Cheap land, cheap labor and the existence of pre-industrial homesourcing made Eindhoven an attractive area for the developing industries which were being stimulated by the government of King William I. During the 19th century, Eindhoven grew into an industrial town with factories for textile weaving, cigar manufacturing, match making and hat making. Most of these industries disappeared again after World War II, though. In 1891, brothers Gerard and Anton Philips founded the small light bulb factory that would grow into one of the largest electronics firms in the world. Philips' presence is probably the largest single contributing factor to the major growth of Eindhoven in the 20th century. It attracted and spun off many hi-tech companies, making Eindhoven a major technology and industrial hub. In 2005, a full third of the total amount of money spent on research in the Netherlands was spent in or around Eindhoven. A quarter of the jobs in the region are in technology and information technology, with companies such as FEI Company, NXP Semiconductors, ASML, ALTEN, Simac, Neways Electronics and the aforementioned Philips and DAF. Eindhoven has long been a centre of cooperation between research institutes and industry. This tradition started with Philips and has since expanded to large cooperative networks. The Eindhoven University of Technology hosts an incubator for technology startups and the NatLab has developed into the High Tech Campus Eindhoven. Also, TNO has opened a branch on the university campus. This tradition has also fostered inter-industry cooperation in the region; one example of this is the announcement in September 2010 of a new research lab for high-grade packaging materials, a cooperation of IPS Packaging and Thales Cryogenics. This cooperative tradition has also developed into a different direction than the traditional technology research done at the university. Starting in 2002, the university, the Catharina hospital, Philips Medical and the University of Maastricht joined forces and started joint research into biomedical science, technology and engineering. Within Eindhoven, this research has been concentrated in a new university faculty. This development has also made Eindhoven a biomedical technology hub within the country and its region. Prime examples of industrial heritage in Eindhoven are the renovated Witte Dame complex, a former Philips lamp factory; and the Admirant building, the former Philips main offices. The Witte Dame currently houses the municipal library, the Design Academy and a selection of shops. The Admirant has been renovated into an Office building for small companies. Across the street from the Witte Dame and next to the Admirant is Philips' first light bulb factory. The small building now houses the "Centrum Kunstlicht in de Kunst" and the "Philips Incandescent Lamp Factory of 1891" museum. Knowledge economy initiativesDue to its high-tech environment, Eindhoven is part of several initiatives to develop, foster and increase a knowledge economy. Chief among these are:
EIT co-locationEindhoven is one of the co-location centres of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. It hosts two Knowledge and Innovation Communities : Innoenergy and EIT ICT Labs. The co-locations are on the High Tech Campus Eindhoven.EducationEindhoven, being a city with a 240,000+ population, is served by a large number of schools both at primary and secondary education levels. In addition, Eindhoven is a higher-education hub within the southern Netherlands, with several institutes of higher education that serve students from the extended region of North Brabant, Zeeland, Limburg and parts of the surrounding provinces.Primary educationPrimary education is provided to the children aged 4 to 12 in Eindhoven through a large number of primary schools:
Secondary educationSecondary education is provided to the children aged 12 to 18 in Eindhoven through several highschools:
Higher and adult educationEindhoven hosts four different public institutions for higher and adult education, as well as a number of private institutions offering courses and trainings. The public institutions hosted in Eindhoven are:
Among the private institutions is the Centrum voor Kunsten Eindhoven, which offers art-related courses to adults. PoliticsMunicipal councilThe municipal council is the legislative council at the municipal level in Eindhoven; its existence is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands. The Eindhoven city council consists of 45 elected representatives from the Eindhoven municipality. These are elected during municipal elections from candidates running in Eindhoven. Eindhoven politics consists of local branches of the national political parties and purely local parties with strictly local interests. The city council reflects this mix in its makeup.Municipal executiveAlder(wo)menThe executive council in Dutch municipalities is called the College of the Mayor and Aldermen. The mayor is appointed by the monarch, but the council of aldermen is composed as a result of the formation of a local coalition government. This coalition is formed in such a way as to be able to rely on a majority of the votes in the city council.;2014 – 2018 In May 2014, a coalition was formed between PvdA, D66, SP, and GreenLeft. Together they had 26 seats in the city council. The council of aldermen consisted of the following people:
In May 2018, a coalition was formed existing of VVD, GreenLeft, PvdA, and CDA. They had 26 seats together. The aldermen were:
In June 2022, a coalition has been formed existing of GreenLeft, CDA, PvdA, and D66, having 25 seats together. Their aldermen have been:
MayorThe mayors of the Netherlands are not elected but appointed by the crown. Nevertheless, there has been a movement over the last few years to give the municipalities more say in who will be their mayor, which has resulted in consultative referendums being held in the larger cities to "suggest" a candidate for the post. This was also tried in Eindhoven.On 23 January 2008, a referendum to elect a mayor was held in Eindhoven. This referendum, the second of its kind in the Netherlands, was attended by 24.6% of the inhabitants. This was less than the required 30% needed to make a referendum binding. Nevertheless, the city council would choose the winner of the referendum as the preferred candidate. The main reason for the low attendance was that the candidates, Leen Verbeek and Rob van Gijzel, were from the same party. Rob van Gijzel won the referendum with 61.8% of the votes and was appointed the city's new mayor. The mayor is the chairman of the Council of B&W. He also has responsibility for a number of specific posts. For example, in the executive council of 2014-2018 mayor Van Gijzel held responsibility for the post of communication. If unavailable, the mayor is temporarily replaced by one of the aldermen. Rob van Gijzel was succeeded by John Jorritsma on 13 September 2016. Jorritsma has been succeeded by Jeroen Dijsselbloem on 13 September 2022. Culture and recreationCulturally and recreationally, Eindhoven was formed by two forces:
Cultural institutionsThere are several cultural institutions in and around the city.Museums
Open-air artThe Eindhoven public space contains many forms of artistic expression, with high "concentrations" of them in the parks. The Stadswandelpark for instance, contains over 30 works of modern art. There are also several other works of art on permanent display throughout the city, such as Flying Pins and Swing. There are also a number of statues of famous city inhabitants, such as Jan van Hooff and Frits Philips on the Market Square. There is a statue of Anton Philips in front of the central railway station.Eindhoven is also, to some degree, open to forms of impromptu and alternative art. For example, the Berenkuil is a freezone for graffiti artists in the city. Light artStrijp-S is a place for experimentation with LED lighting, which keeps the historic connection with Philips' past. Some light art includes the project Fakkel by Har Hollands. In the underground passage to NatLab artist Daan Roosegaarde installed his project Crystal.Strijp-S is a regular location for the light festival GLOW. Music and theatreThe Effenaar is a popular music venue and cultural center in Eindhoven, and is located at the Dommelstraat.In 1992, the Muziekcentrum Frits Philips was opened as a stage for classical and popular music in Eindhoven, reviewed by critics as a concert hall with acoustics that rival the best halls in Europe. Before that, Philips sponsored the POC. Parktheater Eindhoven is Eindhoven's stage for opera, cabaret, ballet etc. Opened in 1964, it has received over 250,000 visitors every year. With its 1,000 m2 it has one of the largest stages in the Netherlands. With a major renovation ending in 2007, the new Parktheater will receive an estimated 300,000 visitors a year. Eindhoven's Plaza Futura is now a cinema featuring cultural movies, lectures and special cultural events. Especially for students, Studium Generale Eindhoven organizes "socially, culturally and intellectually formative events". From within the student body, two Tunas provide entertainment from time to time at university and city events: Tuna Ciudad de Luz and the ladies tuna La Tuniña. The general music and theatre scene in Eindhoven is supported by a foundation called PopEi. The purpose of this foundation is to support artistic groups with facilities, especially rehearsal stages and areas but also storage facilities. PopEi also provides a working environment for groups and provides some logistical support for organizing events. RecreationEindhoven has a lively recreational scene. For going out, there are numerous bars on the Market square, Stratumseind which is the largest pub-street in the Netherlands, Dommelstraat, Wilhelmina square and throughout the rest of the city. In addition to the more culturally oriented Plaza Futura, there are three cinemas in the centre of town.Eindhoven also hosts a large number of cultural and entertainment-oriented festivals. The biggest festivals in Eindhoven are:
ParksEindhoven contains several parks and a lot of open, green space. Of the five largest cities in the Netherlands, it has the highest percentage of green area. It is also the greenest of the five largest cities in North Brabant. The green area per house is about.Some of the major parks in Eindhoven are the Stadswandelpark, Genneper Parken, the Philips van Lenneppark, Philips de Jongh Wandelpark and the Henri Dunantpark. There is also a green area surrounding the Karpendonkse Plas. The combination of park area, water and general atmosphere got the Ooievaarsnest neighborhood elected the "Best large-city neighborhood of the Netherlands" by the NRC Handelsblad in 1997. Sport
Adult-orientated entertainmentThe centre of town features two casinos. At the A67 a Jack's casino is located.There is a red light district on the Baekelandplein, as well as four brothels throughout the city. There is also a blue movie theater. Strijp-SThe old Philips factory complex has been transformed into a multi-purpose cultural and residential complex called Strijp-S. This includes conference and event space, space for concerts and events, art of lighting, space for sports such as BMX, bouldering, and more, a walking promenade, etc.MediaEindhoven features several print media. The local newspaper, called the Eindhovens Dagblad, is a daily newspaper with over 110,000 subscribers in the Samenwerkingsverband Regio Eindhoven region. It has a national and international section, as well as a section dedicated to regional news; the editorial department is located in Eindhoven.In addition to the newspaper, Eindhoven is served by a number of weekly door-to-door publications. Chief among these is Groot Eindhoven. Other than that there are de Trompetter, de Weekendkrant and the ZondagsNieuws. The first two are delivered midweek, the last two are weekend publications. There are several regional and municipal radio stations. The local radio station is Studio040, whereas Omroep Brabant and RoyaalFM provide regional radio. Local television is provided by Studio040. Omroep Brabant broadcasts regionally from its television studio in Son. Internet, television and telephone connectivity is available via cable television, optic fiber and ADSL. TransportAir trafficEindhoven Airport is the closest airport, located approximately from the town centre. The airport serves as a military air base and a civilian commercial airport. Eindhoven Airport is the second-busiest in the Netherlands. Ryanair serves London Stansted Airport, Dublin, Kyiv, Rome, Milan, Pisa, Bordeaux, Marseille, Glasgow, Madrid, Valencia, Stockholm, Kaunas, Malta, Sofia and Barcelona. Wizz air serves Belgrade, Brno, Bucharest-Otopeni, Budapest, Cluj-Napoca, Debrecen, Gdańsk, Katowice, Prague, Riga, Sofia, Timișoara, Vilnius, Wrocław. In the summer season, Reykjavík is served with 2 weekly flights operated by Iceland Express. Transavia services Alicante, Antalya, Athens, Bodrum, Corfu, Dalaman, Faro, Gran Canaria, Innsbruck, Málaga, Mallorca, Munich, Prague, Rhodes and Salzburg, though some destinations are served only seasonally. Eindhoven Airport served more than 6.2 million passengers in 2018.Rail trafficEindhoven is a rail transport hub. Eindhoven Centraal railway station is the main station in Eindhoven. It has connections in the directions of:
Up until World War II, a train service connected Amsterdam to Liège via Eindhoven and Valkenswaard, but the service was discontinued and the line broken up. Recently, talks have resumed to have a service to Neerpelt, Belgium via Weert. Roads and highwaysThe A2/E25 motorway from Amsterdam to Luxembourg passes Eindhoven to the west and south of the city. The A2 connects to the highway A58 to Tilburg and Breda just north of the city. Just south of Eindhoven, the A2 connects to the A67 / E34 between Antwerp and Duisburg. In 2006, the A50 was completed connecting Eindhoven to Nijmegen and Zwolle.Local public transitThe public transport of Eindhoven consists of more than 20 city bus lines, which also serve neighbouring villages such as Veldhoven, Geldrop and Nuenen. Nine of these buslines are marketed as high quality public transport and run with 43 electric articulated buses. Three specially built separated busways are used by lines 400 to 408 as well as other city and regional lines. Line 401 to the airport runs almost completely on separated busways. Apart from the city lines there are some 30 regional and rush-hour lines.Bicycle infrastructureAkin to all large Dutch cities, Eindhoven has an extensive network of bicycle paths. Since 2012, the Eindhoven bicycle path network has incorporated the Hovenring.Medical careEindhoven has two hospitals in three locations: the Catharina Hospital and the Máxima Medisch Centrum, which has a branch in Woensel-Zuid and one in Veldhoven. These three have an extensive cooperation and have divided specialties among each other. Emergency medicine, for example, is concentrated in the MMC Veldhoven branch and the Catharina Hospital, the MMC Eindhoven branch has no emergency department. Cardiac procedures are done in the Catharina.Catharina is also an academic and research hospital and participates in a shared research program with Philips Medical, the Eindhoven University of Technology and the Maastricht University into biomedical science, technology and engineering. Notable residents
Twin towns – sister citiesEindhoven is twinned with: |