Coevorden, Provincie Drenthe, Netherlands

🇳🇱 Coevorden is a city and municipality in the province of Drenthe, Netherlands. During the 1998 municipal reorganisation in the province, Coevorden merged with Dalen, Sleen, Oosterhesselen and Zweeloo, retaining its name.

Etymology The name Coevorden means "cow ford(s)" or "cow crossing", similar to Bosporus or Oxford.

History Coevorden received city rights in 1408. It is the oldest city in the province of Drenthe.

The city was captured from the Spanish in 1592 by a Dutch and English force under the command of Maurice, Prince of Orange. The following year it was besieged by a Spanish force but the city held out until its relief in May 1594. Coevorden was then reconstructed in the early seventeenth century to an ideal city design, similar to Palmanova. The streets were laid out in a radial pattern within polygonal fortifications and extensive outer earthworks.

The city of Coevorden indirectly gave its name to both Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and Vancouver, Washington, named after the 18th-century British explorer George Vancouver. The explorer's ancestors (and family name) originally came to England "from Coevorden" (van Coevern in Dutch Low Saxon). There is also a family of nobility with the surname van Coeverden, sometimes spelled with a K (as with Canadian kayaker Adam van Koeverden).

Geography Coervorden is located in the south of the province of Drenthe in the east of the Netherlands.

The population centres in the municipality are: • Aalden • Achterste Erm • Ballast • Benneveld • Coevorden • Dalen • Dalerpeel • Dalerveen • De Kiel • De Mars • Den Hool • Diphoorn • Eldijk • Erm • Gees • Geesbrug • Grevenberg • 't Haantje • Holsloot • Hoogehaar • Kibbelveen • Klooster • Langerak • Meppen • Nieuwe Krim • Nieuwlande • Noord-Sleen • Oosterhesselen • Padhuis • Pikveld • Schimmelarij • Schoonoord • Sleen • Steenwijksmoer • Stieltjeskanaal • Valsteeg • Veenhuizen • Vlieghuis • Vossebelt • Wachtum • Weijerswold • Wezup • Wezuperbrug • Zweeloo • Zwinderen.

International relations

Coevorden is twinned with: Coevorden Station

Transport There are two railway stations in the municipality: • Coevorden railway station • Dalen railway station.