[edit]
Paleis Het Loo, spring 2012
Apenheul ape zoo, male Bonobo
Apartment buildings along the canal
City hall
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. The Protestant church was restored after a fire in 1890. 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 100,000 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.
Grote Kerk at Loolaan
Apeldoorn is well suited to logistical and distribution companies because of its location close to the intersection of two major Dutch motorways. The A1 runs west from Amsterdam to the German border, where it leads towards Hannover, and Berlin. The A50 connects the north of the Netherlands with the south.
Apeldoorn used to be[when?] well known as a town of paper making and clothes washing companies, due to the clean filtered groundwater which seeped through the sand of push moraines down to the IJsselvallei east of Apeldoorn. In 2008 the largest paper mill of what was left of "Van Gelder Papier" after reorganizations went bankrupt. In 1996 a devastating fire destroyed the remnants of the last part of the original factory. Other parts of the production facility that remained are now in use as a production facility by AFP (Apeldoorn Flexible Packaging B.V.), since early 2021 known as "Trioworld" because AFP merged with "Trioplast", Loparex B.V. and Owens Corning Veil Netherlands B.V. On the entire industrial estate now known as "Van Gelder Park" are now also located a local head office of Rabobank, the main police and fire department offices along with some other local companies.
Apeldoorn has a considerable meat processing industry with production and storage facilities of among others; Vion NV, Van Drie Group (ESA, Ekro), Grolleman Groep (cold stores, transport and meat processing), Amsterdam Meat Company (Ameco). Other big/larger companies or ones that are of local importance include Hanos international (horesca), Hamer B.V. (installation), HSL Logistics (since merged with GVT Logistics), HCA Holland Colours (industrial plastics coloring), Remeha (heating boilers), Royal Reesink N.V. The former distribution centre is now used as a distribution centre for Picnic, an internet grocery home delivery service, although Royal Reesink is still using the office parts of the building.
In August 2018 PostNL opened a large package sorting centre at the Oude Apeldoornseweg, newly built at the industrial area now known as "FizzionParc" but once was known as an industrial estate of Philips Data Systems, the new PostNL location will provide work for around 400 employees.
On 27 November 2018, a rapid spreading fire completely destroyed the largest store of Karwei DIY centres in The Netherlands, located at the Laan van de Dierenriem in Apeldoorn. No one was injured, and as of 2020 the location was rebuilt and reopened. A part of the new building is now up for rent for another business.
Akzo Diosynth once operated a facility that produced base materials for medicine manufacture, but production has since ceased. The terrain located at the Vlijtseweg has been renamed after the product that was produced here before that, Zwitsal. It is now known as "Zwitsal Apeldoorn" and the former facility now houses many new local businesses, such as the beer brewery "De Vlijt".
Apenheul is a zoo which hosts a number of different types of apes and monkeys, many of which are free to walk around the visitors. It is situated at the western edge of Apeldoorn and can easily be reached by local bus. There is also an amusement park situated in Apeldoorn, called the Koningin Juliana Toren (Queen Juliana Tower). It is situated nearby the Apenheul and lies on the road to Hoog Soeren. It is called the Koningin Juliana Toren because of the tower, which was built in 1910 and was later named after Queen Juliana.
The local hospital is the Gelre Hospital "Lukas", offering secondary health care to Apeldoorn and the surrounding towns.
Apeldoorn railway station is, among regular national and international services, the terminus for the Veluwse Stoomtrein Maatschappij, a preserved steam railway that runs to Dieren via Beekbergen.
In April 2009 Apeldoorn made world news, when eight people were killed after a man tried to attack the Dutch royal family during a Queen's Day celebration by crashing his car near the royal family's bus.
The southwestern corner of the municipality is part of the Hoge Veluwe National Park.
It is the final Battle Honour of The Royal Canadian Regiment who took part in the town's liberation in World War II.
