The oldest city in Holland
Transcript
You are walking through the oldest city in the province of South Holland. In 1220 Count William the First gave Dordrecht its city rights, and for the next few centuries it was one of the richest places in the Low Countries.
The reason is the water around you. Dordrecht sits where great rivers meet: the Oude Maas, the Merwede, the Dordtsche Kil. In 1299 the city won the staple right, which meant that wine, wood and grain shipped along these rivers had to stop here and be offered for sale first. Merchants had no choice. Dordrecht got rich.
The great tower you can see is the Grote Kerk, built between 1285 and 1470. It is sixty-five metres tall and its carillon has sixty-seven bells.
The water also brought disaster. On the night of the eighteenth of November 1421, the Saint Elizabeth flood broke the dikes and turned Dordrecht into an island, which it still is. The old story says ten thousand people drowned. Recent research suggests the real number was under two hundred, but the landscape changed for good.
And in 1572, in a former monastery here called Het Hof, representatives of the rebel cities met in secret. They rejected the Spanish king and recognised William of Orange as the leader of the revolt. It was the first step towards an independent Dutch state. So when you walk these streets in December, among the lights and the stalls, you are walking where the Netherlands began.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
