Hoogeveen: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Hoogeveen (population: 53,189) is a town in the northeastern Netherlands, in the south of the province of Drenthe. Access to the town is provided by the A28 (Utrecht - Groningen) highway, the N/A37 (Hoogeveen - Germany), and the Western Cities - Groningen railway.

It dates its history to December 20, 1625, when Roelof van Echten bought a large tract of peat land from farmers of the district with the plan to harvest its peat. One old map of the area called it Locus Deserta Atque ob Multos Paludes Invia, a deserted and impenetrable place of many swamps.

Its coat of arms, granted November 10, 1819, is white, with a pile of peat covered in straw in the center and beehives on each side, representing the town's first two major industries.

Vincent van Gogh visited the ares in the fall of 1883. [1]

In the second half of the 1960s, Hoogeveen was the fastest growing town in the Netherlands. Its rapid growth during that period led its city council to fill most of the town's canals, canals dug in the area's early days when it was a prime source of peat.

The municipality covers an area of 129.00 km², of which 0.19 km² is water.

The municipality of Hoogeveen also includes the following towns, villages and townships: Elim, Fluitenberg, and Noordscheschut, which still have the canals which used to be throughout the town. Other villages of the town are Hollandscheveld, Nieuw Moscou, Nieuweroord, Nieuwlande, Pesse, Stuifzand, and Tiendeveen.

Geography and Location

Aerial map