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Concept
Weesp
Summary
Weesp (ʋeːsp) is a city, an urban area in the municipality of Amsterdam in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It had a population of in . It lies on the river Vecht and next to the Amsterdam–Rhine Canal in an area called the Vechtstreek. The former municipality of Weesp merged with Amsterdam on 24 March 2022.
Until the early Middle Ages the region around Weesp was an uninhabited peat bog. Weesp (Wesopa in Latin documents) was granted city rights in 1355 and celebrated its 650th anniversary as a city in 2005.
From the late Middle Ages, the river Vecht was a defensive line for the County of Holland and it remained a military defensive line until the Second World War. Weesp was strongly fortified, more than its size would justify; for most of its history it had a few thousand inhabitants.
The defensive lines consisted of inundation zones, which would be flooded in wartime (the Hollandic Water Line). Behind them were fortified towns, forts, barracks and other military structures. The most comprehensive was the Defence Line of Amsterdam (Stelling van Amsterdam), a circular inundation zone around Amsterdam, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
After the Second World War, new housing was built in the west and an industrial zone with a harbour at the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal was constructed. In the 1970s a suburb was built on the south. Another suburb was built in the north which recently expanded with plans for further expansion.
Before the reformation the church was dedicated to Saint Laurens. It is still in use for Protestant services. In the tower it has a famous carillon by Pieter Hemony cast in 1671. Following the 19th Century emancipation of Dutch Catholics, a Catholic church was erected in Weesp.
The Dutch government considered Weesp too small to continue as an independent municipality. In a 2018 referendum, 57.4% of the inhabitants voted in favor of a merger with Amsterdam. On 1 June 2019 the civil service offices of the municipality of Weesp merged with those of the municipality of Amsterdam in preparation of the merger of the two municipalities.
Official source
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