Hilversum


Hilversum is a city and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is the largest urban centre in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes and smaller towns. Hilversum is part of the Randstad, one of the largest conurbations in Europe, and the Amsterdam metropolitan area; it is about 22km southeast of Amsterdam's city centre and about 15km north of Utrecht.
The city is home to several major radio, television, and newspaper companies such as NOS. Hilversum is thus known for being the mediastad of the Netherlands.
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Town

Hilversum lies south-east of Amsterdam and north of Utrecht. The town is known for its architecturally important Town Hall (Raadhuis Hilversum), designed by Willem Marinus Dudok and built in 1931.
Hilversum has one public library, two swimming pools, several sports halls, and several shopping centers. Locally, the town center is known as.

Geography

Hilversum is located on the sandy, hilly parts of the Gooi region and has four hills: the Boomberg ; the Trompenberg, the Hoorneboeg, and two kilometers east of there, the Zwaluwenberg, home to the headquarters of the inspector-general of the armies since 1950. These hills date from the period of the Ice-age, when Hilversum was the southern-most point covered by glaciers.
The surrounding towns of Hilversum are Nieuw-Loosdrecht, Bussum, Kortenhoef, Blaricum, Hollandsche Rading, Lage Vuursche, Maartensdijk, 's-Graveland, Laren, Nederhorst den Berg, and Ankeveen.
Hilversum consists of the following districts and neighborhoods: Center, Northwest, Northeast, East, Southeast, Zuid, Southwest and Hilversumse Meent. In 1767, Hilversum was still divided into 4 districts : the Neuquartier, Groestquartier, Kerkquartier, and the Sandtbergerquartier.
The Oude Haven in the southwest is at the end of the Gooische Vaart. The construction of the canal between 's-Graveland and Hilversum was done in stages over 240 years. The canal was completed in 1876. Later, a modern harbor was dug, surrounded by an industrial estate. There is also a leisure harbor.

International

Hilversum has a variety of international schools, such as the Violenschool and International School Hilversum . Also, Nike's, Hunkemöller's and Converse's European headquarters are located in Hilversum.

History

Earthenware found in Hilversum gives its name to the Hilversum culture, which is an early- to mid-Bronze Age, or 1800–1200 BC material culture. Artifacts from this prehistoric civilization bear similarities to the Wessex Culture of southern Britain and may indicate that the first Hilversum residents emigrated from that area.
The first brick settlements formed around 900, but it was not until 1305 that the first official mention of Hilversum was found. At that time it was a part of Naarden, the oldest town in the Gooi area.
Farming, raising sheep, and wool manufacturing were the main sources of income for inhabitants of the Gooi region in the Middle Ages. In 1424, Hilversum received its first official independent status. This made further growth possible because permission was no longer needed from neighboring Naarden for new industrial development.
The town grew further in the 17th century when the Dutch economy was strong, and several canals were built connecting it indirectly to Amsterdam.
In 1725 and 1766 large fires destroyed most of the town, leveling parts of the old townhouse and the church next to it. The town overcame these setbacks and the textile industry continued to develop, among other ways by devising a way to weave cows' hair.
In the 19th century a substantial textile and tapestry industry emerged, aided by a railway link to Amsterdam in 1874. From that time onward the town grew quickly with wealthy commuters from Amsterdam moving in, building themselves large villas in the wooded surroundings, and gradually starting to live in Hilversum permanently. Despite this growth, Hilversum was never granted city rights so it is still referred to by many locals as "het dorp", or "the village."
For the 1928 Summer Olympics in neighboring Amsterdam, it hosted all of the non-jumping equestrian and the running part of the modern pentathlon event.
The Nederlandse Seintoestellen Fabriek company established a professional transmitter and radio factory in Hilversum in the early 1920s, growing into the largest of its kind in the Netherlands.
Following the defeat of Allied forces in the Netherlands in 1940, and its occupation by Nazi Germany, Hilversum became the headquarters of the German Army in the Netherlands. On February 25 and 26, 1941, most of Hilversum's factories went on strike against the start of the Holocaust in the so-called February strike. Some 10,000 people took part. The Holocaust took the lives of 2,000 Hilversum Jews and the community never fully recovered. Since 2015 there has been an annual remembrance service. Some 50 Hilversummers were awarded the title of Righteous among the nations from Yad Vashem, including Victor Kugler, one of Anne Frank's helpers.
In 1948, NSF was taken over by Philips. However, Dutch radio broadcasting organizations centralised their operations in Hilversum, providing a source of continuing economic growth. The concentration of broadcasters in Hilversum has given it its enduring status as the media city for the Netherlands.
In 1964, the population reached a record high of over 103,000. However, the textile industry had started its decline; only one factory, Veneta, managed to continue into the 1960s, when it also had to close. Another major industry, the chemical factory IFF, also closed by the end of the 1960s.
After the 1960s, the population gradually declined, until stabilising at around 86,000 in 2006 and rising to 90,000 in 2018. Several factors other than the slump in manufacturing contributed to this decline: one is the reduction in average family size, with fewer people living in each house; second, the town is virtually unable to expand because much surrounding land was sold by city architect W.M. Dudok to the Goois Natuurreservaat ; third, the rapid increase in property values forced many people to move to less expensive areas in the Netherlands.
In the 1970s, Hilversum solidified its status as a media hub of the Netherlands, largely due to the concentration of broadcasting organizations, particularly radio and television, in the city.
Hilversum was one of the first towns to have a local party of the populist movement called Leefbaar ("liveable"). Founded by former social-democrat Jan Nagel, it was initially held at bay for alderman positions. In 2001, Nagel from Leefbaar Hilversum teamed up with Leefbaar Utrecht leaders to found a national Leefbaar Nederland party.
The town has undertaken many improvements, including renovating its central train station, renovation of the main shopping centre, and development of new dining and retail districts downtown including the "vintage" district in the Leeuwenstraat. Several notable architectural accomplishments include the Institute for Sound and Vision, and Zanderij Crailoo, the largest man-made wildlife crossing in the world.
The nearby Media Park was the scene of the 2002 assassination of politician Pim Fortuyn; in 2015, a gunman carrying a false pistol stormed into Nederlandse Omroep Stichting's headquarters, demanding airtime on the evening news.

Culture

There is the large Catholic neo-gothic St. Vitus church (P.J.H. Cuypers, 1892, bell tower. The city played host to many landscape artists during the 19th century, including Barend Cornelis Koekkoek.
In the 1950s and 1960s the city played host to a major European Tennis tournament.
The 1958 Eurovision Song Contest took place in Hilversum. In 2020 the international television event Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light was broadcast from Studio 21 in Hilversum's Media Park. This event was held in place of the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Broadcasting

Hilversum is often called "media city", since it is the principal centre for radio and television broadcasting in the Netherlands, and is home to an extensive complex of radio and television studios and to the administrative headquarters of the multiple broadcasting organizations which make up the Netherlands Public Broadcasting system. Hilversum is also home to many newer commercial TV production companies. Radio Netherlands, which had been broadcasting worldwide via shortwave radio since the 1920s, was also based in Hilversum until it was dissolved in 2013.
The following is a list of organizations that have, or are continuing to, broadcast from studios in Hilversum:
One result of the town's history as an important radio transmission centre is that many older radio sets throughout Europe featured Hilversum as a pre-marked dial position on their tuning scales.
Dutch national voting in the Eurovision Song Contest is normally co-ordinated from Hilversum.

Transport

Airport

Hilversum Airport is located in the southwest of the municipality. Next to it is the former Marine Training Camp, now Corporal Van Oudheusden Barracks for the medical troops. In wartime the airfield was expanded significantly by the German military. They also set up an assembly line for training aircraft, produced by Fokker in Weesp.

Railway

Hilversum is well connected to the Dutch railway network, and has three stations.
StationNotes
HilversumOpened on 10 June 1874. Served by regional, Intercity and international trains.
Hilversum Media ParkOpened on 26 May 1974. Previously named Hilversum NOS and Hilversum Noord. Only served by regional trains.
Hilversum SportparkOpened on 1 June 1886. Previously named Amersfoortsche Straatweg and Soestdijker Straatweg. Only served by regional trains.

Public buses

Most local and regional buses are operated by Connexxion, but two of the bus routes are operated by Syntus Utrecht and two others by TransDev and Pouw Vervoer. Regional bus route 320 is operated by both Connexxion and Pouw Vervoer. In 2018, major road works started to make room for a new BRT bus lane from Hilversum to Huizen, set to open in early 2021.

Local government

The municipal council of Hilversum consists of 37 seats, which are divided as follows since the last local election of 2022:

Government

After the 2022 elections, the municipal government was made up of aldermen from the political parties Hart voor Hilversum, VVD, GroenLinks and CDA. The mayor is Gerhard van den Top.
Hart voor Hilversum, a local party, is the largest group on the council. Originally a part of Leefbaar Hilversum, it separated to form a party called DLPH, which won 1 seat in the 2006 elections. In 2006 leadership was taken over by Léonie Sazias, a TV celebrity. She later changed the party name to Hart voor Hilversum. They won 3 seats in the 2010 elections, 6 in 2014 and 8 in both 2018 and 2022.

Notable residents

Notable people born in Hilversum:

Public service & public thinking

The arts

Science & business

Sport