Hengelo


 * This article is about the city in Overijssel, Netherlands. For the town in Gelderland, Netherlands, see Hengelo, Gelderland.



Hengelo is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands, in the province of Overijssel. The city lies along the motorways A1/E30 and A35 and it has a station for the International Amsterdam – Hannover – Berlin service.

Population centres

 * Beckum
 * Oele
 * Hengelo

Transport
Hengelo is easily reached by train. You can travel from Hengelo railway station, the main station of Hengelo and get directly and regularly to:

Apeldoorn, Amersfoort, Hilversum, Southern Amsterdam, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Utrecht, Gouda, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Zwolle, Zutphen, Oldenzaal, Almelo, Deventer, Enschede. There are international trains daily to Bad Bentheim, Rheine, Osnabrück, Hannover and Berlin.

For information on the train services see Hengelo railway station. You can also plan your journey on the website of Dutch Railways. For Amsterdam, you should use the train to Schiphol and change at Amersfoort, where there are regular trains to Amsterdam Centraal railway station, which is the nearest station to the city.

There is also Hengelo Oost railway station and in the future Hengelo Gezondheidspark railway station in Hengelo. Just beside Hengelo Oost railway station is the football club Juliana '32 and the tennisclub Groot Driene.


 * Within the city limits, the only means of public transport is the bus. Some parts of the route are on bus lanes, specifically built for buses to travel faster.
 * The A1/E30 from Amsterdam to Moscow goes right through the city.
 * The A35 from Enschede to Wierden goes along the west side of the city.
 * Hengelo has a relatively large harbour in the Twentekanaal, a heavily used canal from the Twente region to the IJssel.

The town of Hengelo
Although archeological research indicates the location has been inhabited for thousands of years, the municipality was founded in 1802. At that time it merely consisted of a few hundred farms and landworkers' houses.

Hengelo was never granted city rights as it was only a small village that expanded in the 19th century during the industrial revolution. In the late 19th century it rapidly developed after the construction of an important railway junction. This attracted industry with a focus on technology: Stork B.V., Hazemeyer, Heemaf (now part of France's Alstom, Brush HMA,Brush-Barclay, the United States' Eaton, Essent, Heemaf BV, NV Nuon, and Wabtec), KHZ (now AkzoNobel), and Hollandse Signaal Apparaten, now taken over by the Thales Group. Hengelo was the home town of Hengelo Bier, a local brewery.

During World War II, the city was often bombed by the Allies because of the presence of the railways and the war industry activities of local factories. Accidentally the heart of the town was bombed out, during the Bombing of Hengelo on 6 and 7 October 1944, killing several hundred people. This has also left the city without much of an historical centre.

One of the most prominent buildings is the Lambertusbasiliek, a Roman basilica built in 1890 devoted to Saint Lambert.

Notable events

 * On February 11, 1992, a Dutch F16 crashed into the district Hasseler Es.
 * The Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip mention Hengelo in their song "At the Hundredth Meridian", where they "remember Hengelo" after a glorious gig in Metropool (concert hall in Hengelo).

Twin Cities

 * 🇱🇻 Ogre, Latvia
 * 🇨🇿 Plzeň, Czech Republic
 * 🇩🇪 Emsdetten, Germany

Education
Hengelo has six big high schools. These high schools are: the Montessori College Twente, the Bataafs Lyceum, the Twickel College, the Gilde College, Grundel Lyceum and the Grundel Parkcollege.

Notable people born in Hengelo

 * Henk Kamp (b. 1952), former Dutch Minister of Defence (12-12-2002 until 21-02-2007)and current Dutch Minister of Social Affairs in the VVD-CDA minority coalition (2010 - )
 * Joris Keizer (b. 1979), Dutch butterfly swimmer
 * Niels Oude Kamphuis (b. 1977), Dutch soccer player
 * Joost Posthuma (b. 1981), Dutch cyclist
 * Kirsten Vlieghuis (b. 1976), Dutch freestyle swimmer
 * Theo Wolvecamp (b. 1925), Dutch painter, member of Cobra