Zwolle

Zwolle was a Hanseatic town that grew rich on trade through the IJssel and the Zuiderzee, and its outline is the clearest thing about it: the medieval walls were replaced in the seventeenth century by a bastioned earthwork and moat, and while the ramparts were later landscaped into a park the moat survives complete, so the old town sits inside a continuous star of water that reads perfectly on a map and is walked or paddled all the way round. The Sassenpoort, a fifteenth-century brick gate with four turrets, is the surviving entrance. Thomas a Kempis, who wrote The Imitation of Christ - among the most widely read Christian books ever - lived at the Agnietenberg monastery just outside. Museum de Fundatie in the old palace of justice was given a rooftop extension in 2013, an ellipsoid clad in white tiles, immediately nicknamed the cloud or the egg.

History

The town was founded around 800 by Frisian merchants and troops of Charlemagne on a rise, Suolle, "hill", the only land that stayed dry when the four rivers around it flooded. The bishop of Utrecht granted it city rights on 31 August 1230, it joined the Hanseatic League in 1294, and its golden age came in the 15th century; Thomas à Kempis spent most of his life in the convent on the Agnietenberg nearby and died there in 1471 (Wikipedia, Zwolle).

What you'll find

• A complete star moat - the seventeenth-century water circuit around the old town.
• The Sassenpoort - a fifteenth-century brick gate with four turrets.
• A rooftop ellipsoid - the white-tiled 2013 extension on Museum de Fundatie.
• Thomas a Kempis's ground - the monastery just outside where he wrote.

When to go

April to October. Two days.

Good to know

Museums close on Mondays. The ramparts are a landscaped park rather than defences. The rooftop extension divides opinion locally. The city is a rail hub and busy on weekdays.

Nearby

Kampen is west; Hattem is south across the IJssel.

Key facts