Almere is a city and municipality in the Dutch province of
Flevoland, in the polder Zuidelijk Flevoland. The municipality
welcomed the 200,000th resident in October 2016 and had 214,457
inhabitants on December 1, 2020.
Almere borders on the
landward side to the municipalities of Lelystad and Zeewolde. Almere
lies on its waterfront on the Gooimeer, IJmeer and Markermeer. The
city is, except for the dikes, completely below sea level (2 to 5
meters).
Almere was established in the second half of the
twentieth century as the second largest city in the province of
Flevoland. The first homes were completed in 1976. In the meantime,
it has far surpassed Lelystad, the capital of Flevoland with over
79,000 inhabitants (2020). After 25 years, in 2001, Almere already
had 150,000 inhabitants. In 2020, it is the eighth municipality in
the country in terms of inhabitants. In the coming period, the city
will be able to grow to a number of 350,000 inhabitants.
Name
The city of Almere is named after the water called
Almere. In the Middle Ages this was a lake or inland sea, roughly
where the IJsselmeer is now. According to some, 'Almere' is a
Germanic name for 'large lake', with the word part 'mere' being a
Middle Dutch form of the modern 'lake'. The Germanic "ala" is
closely related to our word "all", which means "whole" (compare:
"one and all", "all and all"), and in compound words "great" or
"very".
The 'Aelmere' is mentioned for the first time in a life of saints
about the Anglo-Saxon bishop Boniface. There it is mentioned that in
753 this Irish bishop sailed from the Rhine over a water called
'Aelmere' towards present-day Friesland. Around 1100, a chronicle
about the island of Urk is referred to as "Urk in the lake Almere".
The Rijksdienst voor de IJsselmeerpolders (RIJP) initially used
the working name 'Southwest city' for the new city. In 1970 the name
Almere was chosen, whereby alternative names ('IJmeerstad',
'IJdrecht', 'Nieuw Amsterdam', 'Eemmeerstad' and 'Flevostad') were
dropped. The new name was first used in 1971.
History
Originally, the IJsselmeer polders were mainly, or even exclusively,
intended as agricultural land. After the Second World War, however,
it was realized that the rapidly growing population of Amsterdam in
particular should be partly housed elsewhere. For example, two
cities were designed in the Eastern and Southern Flevoland polders.
The city in Eastern Flevoland became Lelystad. The city in southern
Flevoland was still called Southwest City on the first sketches, but
was given the name Almere in the 1970s, after the early medieval
name of the Zuiderzee.
The first impetus for the construction
of Almere was given on September 30, 1975 and the first homes in
Almere were completed in November 1976. At that time, the city was
still directly managed by the Public Body Zuidelijke
IJsselmeerpolders (Z.IJ.P.), with a landdrost at the head. The
nationally prescribed building program for the new city consisted of
70 to 80 percent social housing. The Almere Residential Building
Foundation was established in 1975 as the client and preparer of
housing in Almere, part of the National Office for the
IJsselmeerpolders.
At the end of 1979, the general Almere
Housing Association was founded on the initiative of landdrost Han
Lammers. The idea was that this association would take over the
ownership and management of the social rental homes from the SWA and
would from now on take care of the remaining construction task for
social rental homes in Almere. Completely against the spirit of the
times, the Christian housing association Goedestede was set up
almost simultaneously, by believers from Almere who hoped to promote
more growth in Almere for the new local Protestant church community.
As of 1984, what was left of the OL ZIJP (except the Markermeer)
was divided by law into the municipalities of Almere and Zeewolde.
The municipality of Almere regards itself as the legal successor of
the Public Entity and also carries the same weapon. Until 1986, when
the province of Flevoland was established, the Ministry of the
Interior took over provincial tasks.
Originally Almere was
set up as a city with several centers. This policy has been
partially abandoned. Almere Buiten and Almere Stad have grown
together through the Tussen de Vaarten district. A changed housing
policy is clearly visible between the oldest and the newest
residential areas; in the seventies this was aimed at uniformity and
functionality, in the nineties it became the trend to build more
exclusive and striking homes, for example in the Regenboogbuurt and
Eilandbuurt.
The center of Almere Stad, the largest district,
expanded considerably after this. In 2006, the first part of the
newly built city center Citymall Almere was completed. Its main
building is the Citadel, designed by Pritzker Prize winner Christian
de Portzamparc. At the beginning of 2007, the new Theater Almere was
put into use. The striking building, located on the Weerwater, was
officially opened on 8 June 2007 by Queen Beatrix.
On October
3, 2016, the city had exactly 200,000 inhabitants.
Road traffic
The following major national and provincial roads
are located in the vicinity of Almere:
A6 Muiderberg - Almere
- A27 - Emmeloord - Joure
A27 Sint-Annabosch - Gorinchem -
Everdingen - Lunetten - Rijnsweerd - Eemnes - Almere
N305 Almere
- A27 - Zeewolde - Biddinghuizen - Dronten
N702 A6 Almere
Stad-West - Hogering - N702 - A6 Almere Buiten
The
infrastructure within Almere is characterized by separate
infrastructure for bicycles, cars and buses (completely separate
bicycle paths and bus track network).
Railways
In 1987,
Almere was connected to the national railway network via the Weesp -
Lelystad (the Flevolijn) railway, which was completed in 1988, and
which has been running to Zwolle (the Hanze line) since 2012. Almere
has six stations: Almere Poort, Almere Muziekwijk, Almere Centrum,
Almere Parkwijk, Almere Buiten and Almere Oostvaarders. Almere
Strand station still existed until the opening of Almere Poort
station in 2012. This station was only used for events on the
Almeerderstrand.
From Almere Centrum station, intercity
trains and sprinters travel in the directions Amsterdam, Utrecht,
Schiphol, The Hague, Lelystad, Zwolle, Groningen and Leeuwarden.
City and regional transport
City and regional transport in
and around the city is provided by transport company Keolis
Nederland and consists of transport with city and regional buses.
The city bus network, branded allGo, has seven bus lines and
three night bus lines (nightGo). Five regional lines run under the
R-network, one of which is the rush-hour line. There is also a
network for high-quality public transport, two other regional lines,
a line to and from De Vaart industrial estate with stops where the
bus comes on request (flexiGo, line 22), a line to the new Duin
district (duinGo, line 24). and two lines to the new Nobelhorst
district (nobelGo, rush-hour line 25 and neighborhood bus line 525).