Elburg is a municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 and a city in the province

Province

A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Etymology:The English word "province" is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French "province," which itself comes from the Latin word "provincia," which referred to...

 of Gelderland

Gelderland

Gelderland is the largest province of the Netherlands, located in the central eastern part of the country. The capital city is Arnhem. The two other major cities, Nijmegen and Apeldoorn have more inhabitants. Other major regional centers in Gelderland are Ede, Doetinchem, Zutphen, Tiel, Wijchen,...

, Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

.

History

There is evidence of a Neolithic

Neolithic

The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...

 settlement at Elburg consisting of stone tools and pottery shards.

From Roman times there are names and shards of earthenware which suggest that there was an army camp at the site of Elburg.

The earliest extant written record of Elburg is from 796 A.D.

Between 1292 and 1296 Elburg was rebuilt in the form it is seen today, with a moat and a city wall, together with the straight pattern of the street plan. This rapid rebuilding was expensive, indicating that Elburg was reasonably affluent in medieval times .

Several records of Elburg date back to the 14th century. Elburg was granted town status by earl Jan van Geel early in the century. There is a record that Elburg got its fishing right granted in 1313. In 1367 the city was recorded as a member of the Hanseatic League

Hanseatic League

The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...

.

Throughout the centuries, Elburgh remained a fishing and farming center through the end of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Unlike many other Dutch towns, Elburg had refused to use city funds to build a railroad station in 1863. Because the land owners were asking unreasonably high prices for the right of way over their property, the track line Utrecht-Amersfoort-Zwolle bypassed Elburg. As a consequence, Elburg became less attractive for manufacturers compared with neighboring places like Harderwijk

Harderwijk

' is a municipality and a small city in the eastern Netherlands.- The history of Harderwijk :Harderwijk received city rights from Count Otto II of Guelders in 1231. A defensive wall surrounding the city was completed by the end of that century. The oldest part of the city is near where the...

. In addition, the close off of the Zuiderzee in 1932 meant an end to the fishing industry of Elburg, since the former salt water bay gradually became a fresh water body. Therefore, since 1956, the city concluded that only tourism would be the most viable sector for the local economy. Because of its favourable position both on the edge of the canal and near the Veluwemeer, tourists have made it a popular tourist destination. Each year many visit to see the largely unchanged medieval town.

People born in Elburg

• Kira Bulten
  Kira Bulten
  Kira Bulten is a former breaststroke swimmer from the Netherlands, who competed for her native country at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. There she was eliminated in the heats of the 100 m and 200 m breaststroke...
  
   (born 1973), swimmer
• Gerwin van der Werf
  Gerwin van der Werf
  Gerwin van der Werf is an author of novels, songwriter and instrumentalist. In April 2010 his first novel, 'de Gewapende Man,' will was published by Uitgeverij Contact...
  
  (born 1969), writer

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