Woerden

Woerden is a municipality and a city in the central Netherlands.

Population centres

• De Meye
• Harmelen
• Kamerik
• Kanis
• Woerden
• Zegveld
  

  The city of Woerden

The city has a rich history of making cheese (so called Gouda cheese). There used to be a cheese market in the center (since 1885).

During building and reconstruction works in the city center of Woerden, a lot of old Roman buildings and ships were found, as Woerden was a castellum (Castellum Laurum) in the Roman_empire.
It was part of the defense of the northern border of the Roman Empire. In Woerden the army created the fort Laurum. During field research, a lot became known about the roman time in Woerden: the location of the castellum, the zone of defense waters with the entrance road and the roman rowing boat Woerden 7.

After the Roman period, the place was called Wyrda, referring to Wierd, meaning that the place was on a higher place in the area.

In 1410 was started with building the castle of Woerden, and in 1510 with the townhall. These buildings still exist.

As of May 2004, Woerden is participating in a test where the 1 cent and 2 cent Euro coins are not used - all prices are rounded to the nearest 5 cents. The results of this test will help determine if the Netherlands continues to mint the small denominations.

Harmelen

It is best known for being the site of the Harmelen train disaster, the largest train accident in Dutch history. In 1962 two passenger trains collided, resulting in 91 fatalities.

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