Harderwijk

Harderwijk had a university from 1648 to 1811, small and not distinguished, which acquired a reputation for granting degrees quickly to foreign students - Carl Linnaeus arrived in 1735, submitted a thesis he had written beforehand, was examined and graduated as a doctor of medicine within about a week, then went on to Leiden and to the work that reorganised biological classification. Herman Boerhaave also took a degree here. The town was a Hanseatic port on the Zuiderzee, and when the sea was closed in 1932 and the Flevoland polders were pumped out in the 1950s and 1960s Harderwijk stopped being a coastal town at all - the water in front is now the Veluwemeer, a narrow lake, with reclaimed land beyond it. The old centre keeps its walls, the Vischpoort and gabled houses. The Dolfinarium is here.

History

Count Otto II of Guelders granted Harderwijk city rights in 1231, and a wall was finished by the end of that century. The town grew southwards around 1315, when the Grote Kerk was built, and northwards around 1425, and from 1648 to 1811 it had a university, where Carl Linnaeus took his degree (Wikipedia, Harderwijk).

What you'll find

• Linnaeus's degree town - graduated in about a week at the small local university.
• A Hanseatic port without a sea - cut off when the Zuiderzee closed and Flevoland was pumped.
• Walls and the Vischpoort - the surviving fortification and gate on the old waterfront.
• The Veluwemeer - a narrow lake where the open sea used to be.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Practical notes

The Dolfinarium keeps cetaceans in captivity, which is contested and worth knowing before buying a ticket. The old centre is small. Summer weekends are busy with lake traffic.

Nearby

Elburg is north-east; the Veluwe forests are south.

Key facts