The town of Enschede, situated on the Twente Canal near the German frontier, is the center of the Dutch cotton industry and also an important cultural center in the eastern Netherlands. It is the largest town in Overijssel, with a Textile College, a University of Technology founded in 1961, an Academy of Art and there were three celebrated museums. Two of the museums merged in 2007 to become Wave of Twente, housed in an old textile factory. Enschede also hosts the oldest marathon in the Netherlands and is the final stage in quite possibly the world's largest relay race.
Industry began to develop in Enschede around 1830, and there was a rapid increase in the population of the town, which previously had been a place of no particular importance. Associated with the town's traditional cotton and woolen industries are spinning and weaving mills and bleacheries, as well as artificial fiber and clothing factories. Textile machinery and other equipment are also produced in the town. In recent years other branches of industry (chemicals, electrical products) have been established in Enschede in order to avoid the over-dependence on a single industry which would leave the local economy vulnerable in an economic crisis.
Enschede received its municipal charter in 1325. Much of the town was destroyed in a great fire in 1862. It suffered heavy damage in 1944 but was rapidly rebuilt and is now a modern industrial town with wide new streets.
Also worth a visit is the Horstlanden Pinetum, on the campus of the University of Technology in Drienerloo, with coniferous trees from Europe, America and Asia.
At Bentstraat 43 in Enschede is the National Museum of Goods Vehicles (Nationaal Vrachtwagen Museum), with veteran vans and lorries made by the Kromhout (1935) and DAF (from 1950) firms and DAF cars from 1959 onwards.
From the town center Langestraat runs east to the street known as De Klomp, at No. 35 of which is the Elderinkshuis (1783), the only major building in Enschede to have survived the great fire of 1862.
The Grote Kerk (Reformed), originally Romanesque (1200), was enlarged in 1480. In 1842 it was rebuilt as an aisleless church. After the 1862 fire it was reconstructed in its original form.
In the southwest of Enschede, at the corner of Hacksbergerstraat and Industriestraat, is the Museum of the Textile Industry (Textielindustriemuseum), also known as the Janninck Museum, which illustrates the history of the textile industry from its cottage origins to the present day. It is housed in a former spinning mill, which was operative between 1900 and 1960.
At De Ruyterlaan 2, west of the town center, is the Natural History Museum (Natuurmuseum), with a collection of rare birds, insects, reptiles, mammals, minerals and fossils from the Enschede area.
Near the Museum in Enschede, at Prinsestraat 126, stands the Synagogue (1928), a building of rather Oriental aspect with a copper dome. After thorough restoration it ranks as one of the finest synagogues in Europe.
The best known of Enschede's three museums is the Twente Museum (Rijksmuseum Twente), situated at Lasondersingel 129-131, in the north of the town. It has a fine collection of antiquities and pictures, together with old manuscripts, woodcarving, Delft ware and valuable tapestries. The pictures and the museum building itself were gifted by the Van Heek cotton manufacturing firm. All the main periods of art in Flanders and the Netherlands from the 15th century to the present day are represented in the gallery.
Hours:
11am-5pm; Closed: Mon
Always closed on: New Year's Day (January 1), Christmas - Christian (December 25)
In the Volkspark, to the west of Enschede, is a war memorial by Mari Andriessen (1953), an impressive work of sculpture depicting a Jewish woman, concentration camp inmates, a dead child, a soldier and a resistance fighter.
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