Apeldoorn is a municipality and city in the province of Gelderland in the centre of the Netherlands. It is a regional centre. The municipality of Apeldoorn, including villages like Beekbergen, Loenen, Ugchelen and Hoenderloo, had a population of 162,445 in 2019. The western half of the municipality lies on the Veluwe ridge, the eastern half lies in the IJssel valley.
The oldest known reference to Apeldoorn, then called Appoldro, dates from the 8th century. The settlement came into being at the point where the old road from Amersfoort to Deventer crossed that from Arnhem to Zwolle. A 1740 map refers to it as Appeldoorn.
Close by is the favourite country-seat of the royal family of the Netherlands called the palace het Nieuwe Loo (now Het Loo). It was originally a hunting lodge of the dukes of Gelderland, but in its present form dates chiefly from the time of the then Stadtholder William III of England (1685–1686). The younger sister of Princess Beatrix, Princess Margriet, lives nearby the palace Het Loo, with her husband Pieter van Vollenhoven.
Apeldoorn was a relatively insignificant place until the major building projects of the 19th century and those of the period following World War II.[5] The Protestant church was restored after a fire in 1890.[6] The Roman Catholic Mariakerk is a national monument.
Apeldoorn possesses large paper-mills, many offices (Centraal Beheer, an insurance company; the Dutch Tax services; the “Kadaster”, the government land registry service; and some more), a hospital and nursing homes. With over 95,000 people working in the municipality, Apeldoorn is one of the most important employment centres in the eastern Netherlands. Apeldoorn also has several important educational institutes, such as the Saxion University of Applied Sciences (hotel and facility management), the Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands Police Academy and the Theological University of Apeldoorn.
Apeldoorn is ideally located for logistical and distribution companies because of its location. Next to Apeldoorn is an intersection of two main motorways in the Netherlands. There is the A1, which goes from Amsterdam in the West, to the German border, where it takes you towards Hannover, and Berlin. Then also have the A50, which takes you from the North of the country to the South.