Leidschendam-Voorburg
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Leidschendam-Voorburg (population: 73,832 in 2004) is a municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of 35.66 km² (of which 2.86 km² water).
The municipality of Leidschendam-Voorburg is the result of merging the municipalities Leidschendam and Voorburg in 2002. It consists of the following towns, villages and townships: Leidschendam, Stompwijk, Voorburg.
Both Leidschendam and Voorburg are now attached to the city of The Hague and are often regarded as its suburbs. Stompwijk is still a rural village, located a few miles northeast of Leidschendam.
Voorburg, the most densely populated of the three, has its roots in the 2nd century A.D., when the Romans built the stronghold Forum Hadriani there. They also dug the canal, which is now known as the Vliet and is still very characteristic for Voorburg.
Famous inhabitants of Voorburg include 17th century author and poet Constantijn Huygens, who spent many years building his small country house Hofwijck with adjacent geometrically shaped gardens alongside the Vliet. His son, famous astronomer and mathematician Christiaan Huygens, also spent several years in his father's Voorburg country house. The house, located next to the main railway station, now functions as a museum.
Leidschendam now hosts the main office of the country's secret service, the AIVD, which is an integral part of the State Department. Voorburg hosts the major branch of the country's statistics institute, the CBS, which provides most of the statistics data used by the government. Several railway stations are located within the municipality, providing links with all major cities in the Randstad.
Leidschendam-Voorburg has been a twin town with both the city of Temecula, California and the city of Hranice, Czech Republic, since 1993.
External links
- Official Website (http://www.leidschendamvoorburg.nl)
- http://www.plattegronden.nl/gemeentevoorburg-leidschendam/
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