| Kampen alive
and kicking... Kampen welcomes you to the World Championship 2008. The city has over 100 sportclubs and lots of accomodations. 75% of all inhabitans are linked to or a member of a sport club. The footbike and Kampen Every Wednesday evening at 19.30 h. there is a footbike tour and training organised by Selles Kamperzeedijk in Kampen. Many members of this footbike team live in Kampen or surrounding towns or villages.  Kampen
is familiar with footbike and footbike competitions. Every year the
start and finish of the fameous 245 km IJsselmeerronde
tour event for Amnesty International takes place in Kampen. Also in
winter the stepfakkeltocht
takes place in Kampen and in the past we have seen several times the
National Dutch Championship Sprint being organised in Kampen.Kampen has beautifull routes to ride on a footbike. One of them is the Thea Beckman route (city route) and also the routes over the river dykes are great. Art and culture Kampen is a place were the 21th century meats the middle ages. It has a beautifull city centre with many cultural aspects. The Koggewerf (mideveal shipyard) and the Stedelijk Museum are good examples. Kampen has also a cinema, a beautfiull theatre and a centre for art education (Quintus), both located in monumental buildings in the old city. Also you'll find in Kampen a city archive that is being graded as one of the most important archives of the Netherlands. 
VVV
Tourist office Kampen
Stichting
Evenementen City Kampen
The
10th Kamper Cartoon Spectacle August 16th
De
Kamperbotter sailing race
Sail
Kampen
Christmas
in Oud Kampen
Expositions
in the Frans Walkate ArchiefHistorical details The city of Kampen (or Campen) has a rich history. There are documents from 1227 which was already talked about the city of Kampen. The small settlement grew rapidly into a large and prosperous city and in the 15th century it was one of the main cities of Northwestern Europe. The prosperity that came partly because Kampen had joined the Hanseatic League, an alliance of cities along major trade routes in Europe. From Kampen sailing cargo ships, which were called "cog" (in Dutch: Kogge) on the Zuiderzee, North Sea and Baltic, to cities like Tallinn, Turku, Bremen and Hamburg. In the 16th century the prosperity came to an end, because the Hanseatic League was lifted and the estuary of the IJssel silting. Big impressive housses of the merchants, city gates and narrow alleys are preserved and give the city the atmosphere of this period of prosperity. Recently there is a cog again in Kampen. Construction drawings are reconstructed from ancient documents and the cog is constructed in the most authentic way possible. you can visit the ship and the shipyard.  In the 18th century the city had again a period of bloom by the advent of the tobacco industry. Kampen in those days was famous for his cigar factories. At the height, half of the population worked in the cigar industry. After the World War two the cigar business came to an end. Today there is only 1 cigar plant in Kampen, "De Olifant". Cigars from this plant are praised by experts. In Kampen is a cigar museum established, which has the largest cigar in the world in its collection. In the hospital van Kampen,during world war 2 a young doctor, worked a young doctor; Dr. Kolff. In 1943, he invented the first real functioning artificial kidney and used it successfully. This invention saved so many lifes since 1943. Also the first heart-lung machine is build in Kampen. This was still very experimental and developed later by Dr Kolff in America. Doctor Kolf has meant a lot to mankind and as a tribute there is a statue in the garden of the former stadsziekenhuis. A prominent eye-catcher in the skyline of the city, is the bridge. This bridge with golden wheels was chosen by the villagers in a design competition. The bridge of Kampen was always a topic of conversation for the last centuries. The first bridges were fragile and unsafe, later bridges were too narrow for carriages and coaches. In the 14th century, a solid gate was build on both sides of the bridge, which was locked at night . Because the historical value they were never demolished, although they were serious barriers for the modern traffic. The villagers have to live with this inconvenience until april 1945 when the bridge was blown up by the German occupiers. After the liberation, the city used the opportunity to remove these heavily damaged gates altogether. Historically unforgivable, but a relief for all the traffic which uses the bridge. The bridge that was built after the liberation has come in exactly the same spot as his predecessors. This to great discontent of the skippers of the cargo ships. Cargoships became bigger and bigger and they had a lot of trouble to pass this bridge. Sometimes modern cargoships had poorly 1 meter slack! The government convinced everybody that this bridge was only temporary and that it would soon be replaced for a modern bridge that meets all the requirements. This temporary bridge however, had served more than fifty years before it was replaced by the current!  The skyline of Kampen is one of the most beautyful along the river IJssel. Because of its location it is also very vulnerable to flooding. The area around the bridge is already flooded many times, mostly during spring, when the tide of the river is high. In 1995 the town of Kampen threatened to overflow. Due to build a temporary wall in record time, this danger is averted temporarily. To solve this problem forever, they started building a dam, without prejudice to the unique skyline. Part of this dam consists of the medieval city wall, which once protected the city against uninvited guests. Now this old wall is in use again, although it now protects against a different enemy than where it originally was build for. Kampen has a long agricultural tradition. You will not find the agrarian environment only at the city boundaries, but also in the middle of the city. Many farmers lived with their cattle at various places in the old town. They had their barn within the city walls, while the pastures were outside the city. Not very long ago it was an usual sight to see farmers escorting their cows through the city to the meadow. In 1950, there were still 75 farmers living in the towncentre. In the 80's, 4 of them were still here. The cattle had to go through the narrow streets to the barn. Sometimes cows had to go through the front door and the corridor to reach the barn behind the house. Meanwhile, this all belongs to the past and there are no more farmers living in the city. Though you can still find old farmhouses. One of them still has an original "koegang", (a corridor through the house) allowing the cattle to the shed behind the house. In this house lives nowadays no longer a farmer, but a footbiker.  Kampen and the IJssel are inextricably linked. The IJssel and the IJsselmeer (formerly the Zuiderzee) have given Kampen much prosperity, but also many concerns. With the construction of the Zuiderzeehaven Kampen gets a major transhipment within its city limits. Perhaps this port will give the city in the future a strong economic growth, similar to that of the 13th and 14th centuries. |
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