Rijswijk

Rijswijk (help·info) [ɹɾɛijsvɛik] is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. It is a suburb of The Hague (population: 47,693 in 2004) and covers an area of 14.48 km² (of which 0.43 km² is covered by water). The municipality of Rijswijk also includes the following towns, villages and townships: 't Haantje and Sion. Archeological excavations indicate that this area of the coastal dunes were already inha... more

Rijswijk (help·info) [ɹɾɛijsvɛik] is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. It is a suburb of The Hague (population: 47,693 in 2004) and covers an area of 14.48 km² (of which 0.43 km² is covered by water). The municipality of Rijswijk also includes the following towns, villages and townships: 't Haantje and Sion. Archeological excavations indicate that this area of the coastal dunes were already inhabited some 5500 years ago. The formation of the village Rijswijk took place in the 13th century, and its history was dominated by presence of mansions and estates of the nobility and affluent. Among the many country estates known to have been in Rijswijk are: The Treaty of Ryswick was signed at the Huis ter Nieuwburg in 1697, ending the Nine Years' War. A monument, the Needle of Rijswijk (1792), was erected to commemorate the treaty in the Rijswijk Forest. Until 1900 Rijswijk remained a relative small community but it became urbanized during... less