Where to Stay in Deventer, Provincie Overijssel

What is Deventer known for?

It grew rich in the middle ages as a trading city of the Hanseatic League, and it keeps a great church, a medieval weigh house, and a quarter of old merchant homes by the river, along with a famous book market and its own honey cake. The river slides past the old quays. Old streets and river mark the city.

What are the main landmarks in Deventer?

The Lebuïnus church towers over Deventer. The great stone church of Saint Lebuinus, with its tall tower, rises over the old town, the emblem of the city, above the river. A medieval weigh house stands on the square.

The old Waag, now a museum, watches the market on the Brink, while the Bergkwartier of old merchant homes climbs the hill above the IJssel.

What is the history of Deventer?

Deventer is one of the oldest towns of the Low Countries. A missionary named Lebuinus founded a church on the IJssel here in the eighth century, and a town grew around it that became a bishop's seat and a place of learning. Its school was famous across Europe.

In the great church's shadow the Brethren of the Common Life kept a Latin school where scholars and reformers studied, and the town became a cradle of the new devotion. Trade made Deventer rich in the middle ages. As a city of the Hanseatic League it shipped grain, cloth, and iron along the IJssel and the sea, and it built stone churches, a weigh house, and fine merchant homes.

The river trade faded in time. As the IJssel silted and the sea trade moved to the great ports, Deventer grew quiet, but its old quarter, its church, and its market survived. The old town still stands by the river.

Deventer keeps its Hanseatic streets on the IJssel.

Where is Deventer?

Deventer lies on the IJssel river in Overijssel, in the eastern Netherlands. The town sits on the east bank of the river, where the flat river country meets the wooded ridge of the Veluwe, among meadows and old dikes. Flat water-meadows reach around.

The river runs broad past the town.

What is the climate of Deventer?

Deventer has a mild, damp maritime climate. Cool summers and soft winters cross the low country, and rain falls in every season off the North Sea, with grey skies common through the year. Mist rises off the river at dawn.

The damp air stays cool most days.

How do you get to Deventer?

Deventer lies on the IJssel in the east of the Netherlands, between Zwolle and Apeldoorn. Trains and the motorway run to it from Zwolle, Apeldoorn, and the west, and roads cross the river by the old bridge. Buses serve the smaller towns up and down the IJssel.

Most arrive by train from the west.