Oegstgeest is a town and municipality in the province of
South HollandSouth Holland is a province situated on the North Sea in the western part of the Netherlands. The provincial capital is The Hague and its largest city is Rotterdam.-History:...
in the western
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
. Its population was 22,576 in 2008.
The municipality of Oegstgeest covers an area of 7.75 km² (of which 0.54 km² is water). Oegstgeest lies just to the north of Leiden, with which it is conjoined in a
conurbationA conurbation is an urban area or agglomeration comprising a number of cities, large towns and larger urban areas that, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban and industrially developed area...
. Oegstgeest is a separate municipality, but it is effectively a suburb of Leiden. The municipality of
KatwijkKatwijk is a coastal municipality and town in the province of South Holland in the western Netherlands. It has a population of 61,292.-Location :...
is to the west, the municipality of
TeylingenTeylingen is a municipality in the province of South Holland, the Netherlands. It was created on January 1, 2006, through the amalgamation of Sassenheim, Voorhout, and Warmond...
to the north, the Kaag Lakes (
KagerplassenThe Kagerplassen is a small lake system in South Holland located to the northeast of Leiden. The Kaag Lakes are a popular area for boating, watersports, fishing, camping and walking...
) to the northeast and
LeiderdorpLeiderdorp is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland near the city of Leiden. It had a population of 26,182 in 2004....
to the east.
Oegstgeest is one of the earliest inhabited places along the coast.
Oegstgeest is a town and municipality in the province of
South HollandSouth Holland is a province situated on the North Sea in the western part of the Netherlands. The provincial capital is The Hague and its largest city is Rotterdam.-History:...
in the western
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
. Its population was 22,576 in 2008.
Location
The municipality of Oegstgeest covers an area of 7.75 km² (of which 0.54 km² is water). Oegstgeest lies just to the north of Leiden, with which it is conjoined in a
conurbationA conurbation is an urban area or agglomeration comprising a number of cities, large towns and larger urban areas that, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban and industrially developed area...
. Oegstgeest is a separate municipality, but it is effectively a suburb of Leiden. The municipality of
KatwijkKatwijk is a coastal municipality and town in the province of South Holland in the western Netherlands. It has a population of 61,292.-Location :...
is to the west, the municipality of
TeylingenTeylingen is a municipality in the province of South Holland, the Netherlands. It was created on January 1, 2006, through the amalgamation of Sassenheim, Voorhout, and Warmond...
to the north, the Kaag Lakes (
KagerplassenThe Kagerplassen is a small lake system in South Holland located to the northeast of Leiden. The Kaag Lakes are a popular area for boating, watersports, fishing, camping and walking...
) to the northeast and
LeiderdorpLeiderdorp is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland near the city of Leiden. It had a population of 26,182 in 2004....
to the east.
History
Oegstgeest is one of the earliest inhabited places along the coast. Evidence of a
BatavianThe Batavians were a Germanic tribe, originally part of the Chatti, reported by Tacitus to have lived around the Rhine delta, in the area that is currently the Netherlands, "an uninhabited district on the extremity of the coast of Gaul, and also of a neighbouring island, surrounded by the ocean...
settlement from the second century was found in 1946 in an extension of a coastal dune in the Elgeesterpolder, although it is not certain whether this location remained permanently inhabited in the centuries after that.
By the 9th century there was already a little church in the same location as the current Little Green Church (
Groen Kerkje) which, according to legend, was dedicated by
Willibrord__notoc__Saint Willibrord was a Northumbrian missionary, known as the "Apostle to the Frisians" in the modern Netherlands. He became the first Bishop of Utrecht and died at Echternach, Luxembourg.His father, Wilgils or St...
. The existence of this church is an indication that there may have been a community there.
From the 11th to the 14th century, Oegstgeest enjoyed a period of progress. This ended when
LeidenLeiden is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands and has 118,000 inhabitants. It forms a single urban area with Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp, Voorschoten, Valkenburg, Rijnsburg and Katwijk, with 254,000 inhabitants. It is located on the Old Rhine, close to the cities...
was granted city rights. The carrying out of trades and construction were no longer permitted within a certain distance from the city. In 1399, the
heerlijkheidA heerlijkheid was the basic administrative and judicial unit in rural areas in Dutch-speaking lands before 1800. It originated in the feudal subdivision of government authority in the Middle Ages. The closest English equivalents of the word are "seigniory" and "manor"...
of Oegstgeest and that of Poelgeest were merged because their declining populations could no longer afford to pay the required taxes to the Count of Holland.
Until the 19th century the boundary of Oegstgeest extended right to the city walls and moats of Leiden. But in the 19th and 20th century, it conceded more and more of its territory to the rapidly expanding city of Leiden.
Before the early 20th century, Oegstgeest had a rural character and did not have a centre of population. It consisted of several unconnected smaller settlements. Only after 1900 were new neighbourhoods built between the settlements. First Wilhelminapark was built, followed by Prins Hendrikpark (circa 1915), Buitenlust or Indische Buurt (1925), Julianapark, Oranjepark, and Emmapark (1920-1950), and Grunerie and the area between Emmalaan and Lange Voort (1950s). In the 1980s and 1990s, the Haaswijk and Morsebel neighbourhoods were built, followed by Poelgeest in the 2000s. In 2006 construction started on a new neighbourhood, Nieuw Rhijngeest.
Other interesting facts
Oegstgeest is the birthplace of the famous Dutch writer
Jan WolkersJan Hendrik Wolkers was a Dutch author, sculptor and painter.Wolkers is considered one of the "Great Four" writers of post-World War II Dutch literature, along with Willem Frederik Hermans, Harry Mulisch and Gerard Reve...
as well as stand up comedian
Theo MaassenTheodorus Wilhelmus Maassen is a Dutch comedian and actor who grew up in Zijtaart in the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant...
.
Marinus van der LubbeMarinus van der Lubbe was a Dutch council communist accused of, and eventually executed for, setting fire to the German Reichstag building on February 27, 1933, an event known as the Reichstag fire. He was posthumously pardoned in 2008.-Biography:Marinus van der Lubbe was born in Leiden in the...
has lived there. The first president of
SurinameSuriname , officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America....
,
Johan FerrierJohan Ferrier was the president of Suriname from 1975 to 1980. He was that country's last governor before independence, from 1968 to 1975, and first president after it gained independence from the Netherlands. He was deposed in a military coup on August 13, 1980...
, now lives in Oegstgeest.
External links