is a suburban
municipalityA municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
in the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, in the province of
North HollandNorth Holland |West Frisian]]: Noard-Holland) is a province situated on the North Sea in the northwest part of the Netherlands. The provincial capital is Haarlem and its largest city is Amsterdam.-Geography:...
. It is part of the
metropolitan areaThe term metropolitan area refers to a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories, sharing industry, infrastructure, and housing. A metropolitan area usually encompasses multiple jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships,...
of
AmsterdamAmsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. The municipality of Amstelveen consists of the following villages and/or districts: Amstelveen,
BovenkerkBovenkerk is a town in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Vlist, and lies about 7 km southeast of Gouda....
, Westwijk, Bankras-Kostverloren, Groenelaan, Waardhuizen, Randwijk, Elsrijk, Keizer Karelpark,
Nes aan de AmstelNes aan de Amstel, is a small village which is part of the municipality of Amstelveen in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. The village, which as the name indicates is located on the River Amstel, and is situated on the edge of the Rond Hoep polder. It was established in the 16th century...
,
Ouderkerk aan de AmstelOuderkerk aan de Amstel is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is largely a part of the municipality of Ouder-Amstel, and lies about 9 km south of Amsterdam. A small part of the town lies in the municipality of Amstelveen....
(partly). The name Amstelveen comes from 'Amstel', a local river, and 'veen', meaning fen, peat, or moor.
KLM has its headquarters in Amstelveen. In addition Amstelveen has the international headquarters of one of the
Big Four auditorsThe Big Four are the four largest international professional services networks in accountancy and professional services, which handle the vast majority of audits for publicly traded companies as well as many private companies, creating an oligopoly in auditing large companies...
,
KPMGKPMG is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the Big Four auditors, along with Deloitte, Ernst & Young and PwC. Its global headquarters is located in Amstelveen, Netherlands....
.
History
During the French occupation between 1810 and 1814, it was the capital of a canton in the French department
ZuyderzéeZuyderzée is the name of a département of the First French Empire in the present Netherlands. It is named after the Zuider Zee sea inlet. It was formed in 1810, when the Kingdom of Holland was annexed by France. Its territory corresponds more or less with the present Dutch provinces North Holland...
, and until 1964 the municipality of Amstelveen was called Nieuwer-Amstel. It is 'technically a large
dorp (village), because it was never walled. The symbol adopted for Amstelveen was based on the Amsterdam symbol of three crosses, with one additional cross for distinction. The Thijssepark (in full the Dr Jac. P. Thijssepark), was the first heempark in the Netherlands and is one of sixteen heemparks or heemgroen in Amstelveen. Designed by landscape architect C.P.Broerse; following the ideas of the great Dutch naturalist and conservationist
Jac. P. ThijsseJac. P. Thijsse was a Dutch conservationist and botanist. He is sometimes referred to as J.P. Thijssse. He created the "J.P. Thijssse Park" in Amstelveen. He placed on De Grootste Nederlander.- References :...
, it was developed between 1940 and 1972 and covers an area of 5 hectares, and is situated just south of the
Amsterdamse BosThe Amsterdamse Bos is an English park or landscape park in the municipalities Amstelveen and Amsterdam. And although most of the park is located in Amstelveen, the owner of the park is the City of Amsterdam...
. Amstelveen was chosen as an unlikely host of a match in the
1999 Cricket World Cup-England:-Outside England:-Group A:-Results:-------------------------------------------------------------Group B:-Results:------------------------------------------------------------...
, for which the
NetherlandsThe Dutch cricket team is a national cricket team representing the Netherlands. It is administered by the Koninklijke Nederlandse Cricket Bond which is based in Nieuwegein in the centre of the country and is older than many renowned cricket clubs in the West Indies, Australia, and New...
had not qualified.
South AfricaThe South African national cricket team represent South Africa in international cricket. They are administrated by Cricket South Africa.South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council, also known as ICC, with Test and One Day International, or ODI, status...
played
KenyaThe Kenya national cricket team is the team that represents the country of Kenya in international cricket matches. They are considered one of the strongest of the associate member nations of the International Cricket Council, especially since reaching the semi-final of the 2003 Cricket World Cup...
in the match. Former Dutch prime minister
Jan Peter BalkenendeJan Pieter "Jan Peter" Balkenende is a Dutch politician of the party Christian Democratic Appeal .He was the Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 22 July 2002 until 14 October 2010, having led four coalition governments, cabinets Balkenende I, II, III and IV, none of which served a full...
started his political career as member of the council for Amstelveen. As a result of the vicinity of Schiphol (Amsterdam Airport), and its links to Amsterdam, Amstelveen has grown and become a cosmopolitan mix of many cultures living in Amstelveen.
Local government
The municipal council of Amstelveen consists of 37 seats, which are divided as follows:
- VVD
The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy is a conservative-liberal political party located in the Netherlands. The VVD supports private enterprise in the Netherlands and is often perceived as an economic liberal party in contrast to the social-liberal Democrats 66 alongside which it sits in...
- 9 seats
- PvdA
The Labour Party , is a social-democratic political party in the Netherlands. Since the 2003 Dutch General Election, the PvdA has been the second largest political party in the Netherlands. The PvdA was a coalition member in the fourth Balkenende cabinet following 22 February 2007...
- 5 seats
- GroenLinks - 5 seats
- Burger Belangen - 4 seats
- CDA
The Christian Democratic Appeal is a centre-right Dutch Christian democratic political party. It suffered severe losses in the 2010 elections and fell from the first to the fourth place...
- 4 seats
- D66
Democrats 66 is a progressive and social-liberal political party in the Netherlands. D66 was formed in 1966 by a group of politically unaligned, young intellectuals, led by journalist Hans van Mierlo. The party's main objective was to democratise the political system; it proposed to create an...
- 6 seats
- Christen Unie - 1 seat
- OCA/VSP - 1 seat
- SP - 2 seats
Twinned with
WokingWoking is a large town and civil parish that shares its name with the surrounding local government district, located in the west of Surrey, UK. It is part of the Greater London Urban Area and the London commuter belt, with frequent trains and a journey time of 24 minutes to Waterloo station....
in
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Villa El SalvadorVilla El Salvador is an urban, largely residential district on the outskirts of Lima, Peru. It borders the district of Chorrillos on the east; the Pacific Ocean on the southwest; Lurín on the southeast; Villa María del Triunfo on the east and San Juan de Miraflores on the north.- History :It began...
in
PeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
TempelhofTempelhof is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg. It is the location of the former Tempelhof Airport, one of the earliest commercial airports in the world. It is now deserted and shows as a blank spot on maps of Berlin. Attempts are being made to save the still-existing...
in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Óbuda-Békásmegyer in
HungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
Transportation
Amstelveen has a
metroLight rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
and
tramA tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
connection with Amsterdam. The Metro is a larger version of the tram in which some bicycles may be taken. It has a good 'point to point' bus connection to other villages, Schiphol International Airport, Amsterdam as well as a local network.
Tourism and attractions
- Cobra Museum
The Cobra Museum is an art museum in Amstelveen, Netherlands. The collection of the museum consists of key works by artists of the Vrij Beelden , Cobra , and Creatie movements.-External links:*...
is located in the centre (Stadshart) of Amstelveen.
- Museum Jan van der Togt
Museum Jan van der Togt is a modern visual art museum in Amstelveen, Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It was established by 1991 by Jan van der Togt, an industrialist and founder of the company Tomado who was a collector of contemporary art....
, is centrehousing a glass art collection
- Birthplace of the artist Jan Cornelis Hofman.
- Birthplace of the actress Famke Janssen
Famke Beumer Janssen is a Dutch actress and former fashion model. She is known for playing the villainous Bond girl Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye and Jean Grey/Phoenix in the X-Men film series .- Early life and education :...
.
- A statue of Rembrandt overlooks the river Amstel, south east from the Amstelpark, where a windmill open to visitors is also situated
- An Electrische Museumtramlijn still connects to Amsterdam in the summer, passing by the Amsterdamse Bos and Olympic rowing lake
- Further places of interest: Amsterdam,
Secondary Education
- The Hermann Wesselink College
The Hermann Wesselink College is a secondary school in The Netherlands in Amstelveen.The school is named after Hermann Wesselink, a school principal who died at an early age, soon after retirement. The motto of the school is; "A school where everybody is equal but nobody is the same". In 2009 the...
offers vmboThe vmbo education is a school track in the Netherlands. It lasts four years, from the age of twelve to sixteen. It combines vocational training with theoretical education in languages, mathematics, history, arts and sciences...
-tl, havoThe havo or hoger algemeen voortgezet onderwijs is a stream in the secondary educational system of the Netherlands. It has five grades and is generally attended from age twelve to seventeen...
, vwoVoorbereidend wetenschappelijk onderwijs or pre-university secondary education is the highest variant in the secondary educational system of the Netherlands. After leaving elementary school students are enrolled in different types of secondary schools, according to their academic ability...
(gymnasiumA gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
and atheneumThe Atheneum, named after the ancient school founded by Roman Emperor Hadrian, is the formal name of the main educational track of Dutch Voorbereidend wetenschappelijk onderwijs. It is a six-year course and successful completion allows the candidate admission to Dutch university...
) and bilingual educationBilingual education involves teaching academic content in two languages, in a native and secondary language with varying amounts of each language used in accordance with the program model.-Bilingual education program models:...
- The Keizer Karel College offers havo and vwo (atheneum and gymnasium).
- The Amstelveen College offers vmbo-tl, havo, and vwo (atheneum and gymnasium)
- The Panta Rhei offers vmbo, optionally with leerwegondersteunend onderwijs (literally, "learning path supporting education")
Economy
KLM has its headquarters in Amstelveen.52.306117°N 4.842954°W KLM Netherlands is also located in Amstelveen.
Air France-KLMAir France-KLM is a European airline holding company incorporated under French law with its headquarters at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport in Tremblay-en-France, Paris...
is represented by the KLM head office.
In addition Amstelveen has the international headquarters of one of the
Big Four auditorsThe Big Four are the four largest international professional services networks in accountancy and professional services, which handle the vast majority of audits for publicly traded companies as well as many private companies, creating an oligopoly in auditing large companies...
,
KPMGKPMG is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the Big Four auditors, along with Deloitte, Ernst & Young and PwC. Its global headquarters is located in Amstelveen, Netherlands....
.
External links