Almelo (Dutch pronunciation:[ˈɑlməloː]ⓘ) is amunicipality and a city in the easternNetherlands. The main population centres are Almelo itself and the villages ofAadorp,Mariaparochie, andBornerbroek. Almelo has about 75,000 inhabitants in the middle of the rolling countryside ofTwente, with the industrial centres ofEnschede andHengelo as close neighbours but also with tourist towns likeOotmarsum,Delden andMarkelo only a bicycle ride away.
Almelo receivedcity rights in 1394. Within the city limits lies the castle of theCounts of Almelo. Located in the city centre is Huize Almelo, a castle that in its current form dates back to 1662 but is not open to the public.
The name Almelo comes from the Germanic wordsalma (which meanselm) andlauha.[5]
The city had amoat, but no walls, and therefore never held any military significance. Huis Almelo (Almelo House) likely existed since the 12th century and remains in the hands of the Van Rechteren Limpurg family to this day. For centuries, the family held various rights in the city of Almelo, including the right to administer justice.[6]
After the then lord of Almelo, Zeger van Rechteren (1623-1674) banned the practice ofCatholicism in 1664, the nuns of the St. Catherine Monastery in Almelo left in 1665 and settled 300 meters across the German border, just southwest of Glane in the Netherlands, in a monastery they named Maria Vlucht (Maria Flight). After the monastery was closed, the church treasures were dispersed throughout the region.
Deze watermolens hebben tot halverwege de 19e eeuw het beeld bepaald op de Koornmarkt in Almelo.
At the end of the 19th century,textile emerged as a major employer and drew many workers to Almelo, at first from within the Netherlands.
The municipality of Almelo was formed from a merger (1914) between the municipalities of Ambt Almelo and Stad Almelo.[7]
During World War II, Almelo was one of the locations where the Twente raid took place in September 1941. Ten Jewish men were arrested in Almelo and perished in theMauthausen concentration camp. A monument commemorating the 242 Jews from Almelo who died, as well as those who hid them, stands in the Almelo Jewish cemetery.[8]
On 15 November 1944, eight resistance fighters against theReichskommissariat Niederlande regime robbed theDe Nederlandsche Bank (Dutch Central Bank) on Wierdensestraat. The loot amounted to 46.1 million guilders, the largest haul ever during a robbery in the Netherlands.[9]
Since the 1960s workers fromSpain andTurkey came to Almelo. The firstmosque of the Netherlands was built in Almelo in 1976 for the Turkish population of the city. Almelo also has a sizeable number of Armenians who built their ownArmenian Apostolic Church in 2003.[10]
In the 1970s the industry dwindled and most factories were relocated to countries with cheaper labour. Some factories remain in the city centre and are now in use for apartments or offices.
^"Postcodetool for 7607EK".Actueel Hoogtebestand Nederland (in Dutch). Het Waterschapshuis. Archived fromthe original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved26 March 2014.
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