Zoetermeer, history in a nutshell

The Zoetermeer Archaeological Working Group has found some Roman shards, but they are so few that it is not clear whether Zoetermeer already existed in Roman times. Excavation did find older animal material. During the extraction of sand for the new housing estates, bones of mammoths, aurochs and saber-toothed tigers surfaced from great depths. Those animals walked around here some ten to a hundred thousand years ago.

Clay holes in the Middle Ages

The village of Zoetermeer is more than a thousand years old. In the Middle Ages, farmers dug so-called clay holes. The clay from those holes was used to improve their peatland. At the bottom of one such hole, Zoetermeer archaeologists found a carved wooden pole a few years ago, dating back to the year 985! So people were already living in Zoetermeer then.

Paying Botting

Zoetermeer used to have to pay a certain tax, the botting, to the Count of Holland. It is known that only the oldest towns in this province paid that tax. This shows that Zoetermeer must have been founded at least before 1100. The first written evidence for the existence of a village on the site of present-day Zoetermeer is found in 1269. Count Floris V then gave away part of the tax revenue here as a dowry.

Fishermen and farmers

In the middle of the Hollands-Utrecht peat area was a large freshwater lake. It could be reached by water from the Rhine. A settlement of fishermen and farmers probably arose here. Based on certain subdivision patterns, it is plausible that the first settlement took place between the Leidsewallenwetering and the Broekweg, in the so-called Langeland, now the De Leyens district. On the corner of the Zwaardslootseweg stood a small church, at a place still called the "old churchyard" until the 18th century. The settlement was named after the freshwater lake Zoetermeer.

Settlement Zegwaart

After the foundation of Zoetermeer, the settlement Zegwaart arose at the site of the present Zegwaartseweg. It was probably named after the sedge-covered worth, a low-lying area, where most people went to live. In the 13th century the settlement centers moved from Langeland and Zegwaartseweg to Dorpsstraat. In 1296 there was probably already a church on the site where the Oude Kerk now stands. Zoetermeer and Zegwaart remained independent, but formed one parish.

Fire and flooding

Zoetermeer developed more prosperously over the centuries than Zegwaart. That village suffered relatively often from fires and floods. On May 1, 1935, both municipalities were merged into the present municipality of Zoetermeer.

Palenstein Castle

Around 1380, knight Willem van Egmond, amt lord of Zegwaart, had his castle Het Huis te Palenstein built at Dorpsstraat . The residential tower was built on hundreds of piles. These were recovered during excavations in the 1980s. Many utensils from the 14th to 18th centuries were also excavated. The knight's manor was demolished in 1791 and a beautiful country house with a large park was built on the site. This country house was demolished in the last century to make way for the forerunners of Brinker's margarine factories, which until recently were located in Zoetermeer.

Moors and peat

The soil of Zoetermeer in the Middle Ages consisted of a meters-thick layer of wet peat. Fields were planted and cattle were raised on it. The land was drained by digging ditches. In time, this caused the peat to sink in and the flooding increased. In the 15th century the area was drained by mills. This kept the land dry to a certain extent. After drying, the bog soil turned out to be an excellent fuel, peat. With this, Delft brewers could do their work.

In the water

The cutting of peat created large pools of water. In fact, peat was so popular that around 1500 people switched to dredging. The entire peat layer was dredged up, up to meters below the water table. In this way, hundreds of acres of moorland literally disappeared into the water. The resulting lakes were dangerous for the narrow peat bogs with houses. Not until the 19th century all the land was reclaimed.

The Relief of Leiden

The Eighty Years' War did not leave Zoetermeer untouched either. In September 1574, the Maas dikes were breached by order of the Prince of Orange. The entire area between the Maas and the Rhine was flooded. Led by Boisot, the Watergeuzen sailed towards Zoetermeer on flat-bottomed boats. South of Zoetermeer lay the centuries-old Landscheidingsdijk between Delfland and Rijnland. The Spaniards had entrenched themselves there. After the necessary skirmishes, the Spaniards were defeated by the Geuzen. Then the dikes were breached and the Geuzen were able to sail on through the Zoetermeer polder.

Zoetermeer shortcut

The next obstacle was the Voorweg in Zoetermeer. It was occupied by the Spaniards. The road was too high to be flooded. Wolfert Adriaanszoon, a man from Zoetermeer, showed the Geuzen a shortcut. With a detour they reached the Zoetermeer lake. From there it was a piece of cake to get to Leiden. The Spaniards offered no more resistance. The consequences are well known: on October 3 Leiden was relieved. This is still celebrated annually.

Meerpolder reclaimed

Peat mining created large expanses of water. Lake Zoetermeer was also so large that it threatened the surrounding land. The shores were muddy peat; the water kept knocking away pieces of shoreline. In 1614 the plan arose to drain the lake. Something similar had already been done in the North Holland Beemster and Purmer. Two years later the plan was completed. The Zoetermeerse Meerpolder was a fact. The polder is the basis for Zoetermeer's fame as a butter village. Because of its size and striking oval shape, the polder is easily recognized on old maps.

Driemanspolder, Binnenwegsepolder

More polders were drained in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the disaster year of 1672, the Driemanspolder fell dry. That is now the name of a district. The Binnenwegsepolder followed in 1701. This took some doing. The village of Zegwaart first tried to drain the polder itself. For lack of money, the rights were sold to the city of Rotterdam. This gave them not only the license but also ownership of the reclaimed land. For over a century, two-thirds of Zegwaart's territory belonged to Rotterdam.

The next reclamation also went wrong. The Buitenwegsepolder was flooded in 1759; the land no longer yielded tax income. So the land had to be reclaimed. Again there was a shortage of money. The amt lord of Zegwaart was willing to help, offering to pay 2/3 of the costs. The village council agreed, but had to agree that 2/3 of the reclaimed land came into the hands of Mr. Osy. Moreover, from then on he could have the highest say in the polder administration. The land fell dry in 1763. The polder was given the name Palensteinsepolder.

Dry feet

The last major reclamation took place around 1770. The Buytenwegh and De Leyens (now district names) were pumped dry. The new land was called the Newly Drained Polder. Many residents of Zoetermeer do not realize that thanks to the efforts of their 18th-century predecessors, they can now live with dry feet more than three to four meters below sea level.

Many religions on one pillow

A large group of Catholics attended a barn church on the Voorweg, between Zoetermeer and Leidschendam, beginning in 1685. The Reformed congregation used the medieval church in the village center. Diagonally opposite, the Remonstrants had had their shelter church since 1635. The Remonstrant congregation was one of the largest in South Holland until its dissolution in 1866. Apart from constant bickering over rights and obstacles, there was peaceful coexistence.

Loyals to the Prince

Until 1787: the Patriots had been pushed aside for the time being by the actions of Wilhelmina of Prussia, the wife of Prince William V. Everywhere the prince's party took back the reins. In Zoetermeer emotions became so heated that an Orangist mob marched to the house of the Remonstrant minister emeritus, Rev. Van den Bosch, accusing him of patriotism. After a fearful night and two days of hiding, the preacher fled from the angry mob, fell into the water and drowned. The corpse remained on the sidewalk for five days and was then dragged through the water to the cemetery and buried without a coffin.

Churchwardens levy tax

At the same time, the Reformed church at Dorpsstraat was rebuilt. The church masters were given permission in 1785 to levy taxes for ten years on a variety of items such as beer, grain and even weddings to pay for the new construction. The church was completed in 1787. The tower had already been largely renewed in 1642 and could remain.

Train and activity

In 1868, the Hague - Utrecht railroad was completed. Also Zoetermeerders could travel by that train. A small station stood at the site of the present-day Zoetermeer East station. It will not have been terribly busy there. Still, the train connection caused greater activity in the villages. Messrs. Van Well, Brinkers and Van der Hagen started their businesses in Zoetermeer in the second half of the last century.

Supermarket, margarine, baby food

Van Well was the founder of the Spar; the company now has stores throughout Europe. Margarine manufacturer Brinkers was based in Zoetermeer until recently and produces, among many other things, the well-known Lion's Seal, Wajang and Bake and Broil. Van der Hagen was the founder of Nutricia. Products from the factory have fed millions of babies. Countless children know Chocomel. Nutricia is still based in Zoetermeer.

Butter Farmers

In the 1930s, Zoetermeer was home to fifty "butter farmers. The butter for which Zoetermeer was famous can still be found in many canteens and lunch boxes today. The mini packs of cream butter were largely provided by the Zoetermeer firm Van der Spek under the name "Zoetermeers Roem.

War

Life during the war was very difficult due to restrictions on freedom, distribution of food and requisition of all kinds of other goods. Many Zoetermeerders were taken to Germany for labor deployment or as prisoners of war. Others, including the mayor, went into hiding. During the hunger winter, the village was flooded by food collectors from surrounding towns.

Local resistance

At the end of World War II, Zoetermeer was a center of illegal activities. From Zoetermeer, the local resistance distributed illegal leaflets. The occupiers were thwarted as much as possible. In early 1945, the American airman John McCormick crashed his plane here. He was hidden in Zevenhuizen. There he, like resistance fighter J.L. van Rij, was killed in a firefight in April 1945. On Liberation Day the Germans raided the Zoetermeer Internal Armed Forces. In that raid, Cornelis van Eerden and Jan Hoorn were shot. The four men are buried in a grave of honor near the Oude Kerk.

Zoetermeer and Zegwaart become one

The villages of Zoetermeer and Zegwaart were merged into one municipality on May 1, 1935. The new municipality then had 4,500 inhabitants. Until the 1960s, new buildings were built on a small scale for the local population. After the war, The Hague had space problems. To solve these, Zoetermeer was designated as a growth center in 1962. The village of 10,000 inhabitants was to grow into a city of 100,000!

Self-sufficient Zoetermeer

It was immediately clear that the new city would not be merely an overflow for The Hague. Zoetermeer had to become self-sufficient. At breakneck speed, meadows and fields disappeared and houses appeared. In 1991, the 100,000th resident was welcomed. The city was divided into separate residential areas, grouped around a city center to be realized.

Palenstein

The first pile for the Palenstein neighborhood went into the ground in 1966. This district is mainly characterized by high-rise buildings. The Driemanspolder district was built between 1966 and 1974. Here the apartments are grouped at the edge of the district around low-rise buildings. Meerzicht started in 1969 and was built with the same ideas as Driemanspolder. At the edge of the neighborhood, the large Westerpark was constructed. With the construction of Buytenwegh and De Leyens starting in 1974, high-rise buildings were abandoned entirely. It turned out that due to the extra space needed around them, flats took up about as much space as low-rise buildings. In 1975 the fourth district was started: Seghwaert. Here again some high-rise was allowed. Incidentally, in this district the original polder ditches and allotments were explicitly taken into account during construction. Just as in Buytenwegh, rows of trees around former orchards were incorporated into the street pattern.

New city center: Stadshart

In the 1980s Zoetermeer got a new center: the Stadshart. As a result, Dorpsstraat lost its center function. In the Stadshart came central facilities such as City Hall, theater and a shopping center. In recent years, the Stadshart has been given a contemporary design. Street furniture was designed especially for the Stadshart. The range of stores has been expanded with Spazio in Centrum-West.

Noordhove to the Zoetermeerseplas

Far to the north of the city, the Noordhove neighborhood was built starting in 1986. This district is located on the Zoetermeerseplas, which was created by sand extraction for construction activities. On this lake is the Noord Aa beach.

Rokkeveen

The first pile for Rokkeveen was struck in 1987. In 1992, the international horticultural exhibition Floriade was held here.

VINEX site

The newest district is Oosterheem, a so-called VINEX location. A residential area that grew out of the Fourth Memorandum on Spatial Planning (1988) and the Fourth Memorandum Extra (1991). This states that until 2015, about 750,000 homes must be built on the urban fringes and in the growth centers of the central Netherlands. Oosterheem accounts for almost 9,000 homes. Construction of the first thousand homes began in 2000; Oosterheem is now nearing completion. The district's name refers to a home (heem) east of the original city.