The lively and attractive town of Amersfoort lies amid expanses of forest and heathland at the confluence of several small streams which here join to form the river Eem. The well preserved old part of the town with its historic buildings is surrounded by a double ring of canals.
Amersfoort is the economic and cultural center
of the Eem valley and the region known as the Gelderse Vallei (Gelderland plain), with a number of higher educational establishments, large markets and important industrial plants (electrical engineering, car assembly, engineering, chemicals). There are also food-processing factories which handle most of the agricultural produce of the surrounding area. Many of the town's inhabitants commute to work in the nearby provincial capital, Utrecht, or in Amsterdam, 50km/30mi away.
Amersfoort first appears in the documents in 1028, and received its municipal charter in 1259. Thanks to its textile factories it developed into a flourishing and prosperous trading town and became a member of the Hanseatic League.
By the first half of the 15th century the town had already expanded beyond its circuit of walls, and a new and larger ring of walls was built between 1450 and 1561. Within the circuit of canals of the original moat lies the well preserved medieval town, with only a few later gabled houses dating from the Renaissance.
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