Z... Zoetermeer
Zoetermeer - currently my hometown - is a city in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of 37.06 km² (of which 2.15 km² is water). Though a small village until the late 1960s, with only 6,392 people living in the entire municipality in 1950, by March 1, 2007 this number had grown to 118,483, making Zoetermeer the third largest population center in the province of South Holland, after Rotterdam and The Hague.
The name "Zoetermeer" (which literally translates into English as "Sweeter Lake") refers to the former fresh lake at the site of the town.
Although Zoetermeer nowadays has the image of a modern city, there are still remains of the past. Like the old village centre with its small houses, old farms and this church.
It is the Old Reformed Church. The church is built in the periode 1785-1787 by the Italian architect Carlo Giovanni Francesco Guidici. It looks rather quare on the outside, but it is built as a cross. The tower dates from 1642.
For more pictures of Zoetermeer click here.
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