old historic centre of the city

Apeldoorn has a reputation for being a city that grew out of a village, and that is the key to understanding its centre. For centuries the settlement lay on the edge of the Veluwe woodland and was known mainly for its streams and its paper mills, and it never acquired the walls, canals and gabled merchant houses that make cities such as Deventer or Zutphen feel medieval. Locals sometimes joke that Apeldoorn is the biggest village in the Netherlands, and a visit makes the joke understandable. If you arrive expecting a compact old town of the Hanseatic kind, you will not find one.

What the centre does offer is a layered, comparatively modern city with a few older anchors. The Grote Kerk stands near the Marktplein, and its tower is among the oldest structures in the central area. Around it you will find the shopping streets, cafe terraces and the weekly market, which gives the area its everyday character. The modern cultural buildings sit close by: CODA, which combines a museum, library and archive, and Theater & Congres Orpheus. Both are good places to get a sense of how the city has reinvented itself in recent decades.

The thread that gives Apeldoorn its identity is royal rather than medieval. Paleis Het Loo, built in the late seventeenth century for Stadtholder William III and his wife Mary II, lies just north of the centre and was a residence of the House of Orange for generations. It is now a national museum, with formal baroque gardens that were carefully restored. The presence of the court helped shape the villas, parks and wide avenues around the town, and it explains why Apeldoorn feels leafier and more spacious than most Dutch centres. Apeldoorn also has the Julianatoren amusement park and, a short trip away, the Apenheul primate park, which are the reasons many families come.

A sensible way to use the centre is as a base rather than a destination in itself. Spend an hour wandering from the Grote Kerk through the shopping streets, stop for coffee on the Marktplein, then continue to the palace or out to the Veluwe, where the forests, heath and the royal estates give the area its real appeal. De Hoven is often mentioned as one of the older residential parts of town and is a pleasant detour for a quiet walk.

This stop suits visitors who enjoy a lived-in Dutch city without crowds, those linking it with a day at the palace, and anyone interested in how royal patronage and nearby nature shaped a town that was never medieval.