South Holland Totally Explained

Everything about South Holland totally explained

South Holland (Dutch: ) is a province of the Netherlands, located in the west of the country on the North Sea coast. It is the most densely populated and industrialised of the Dutch provinces. Neighbouring provinces are Zeeland to the southwest, North Brabant to the southeast, Gelderland to the east, Utrecht to the northeast and North Holland to the north.
It contains the major cities of The Hague (Den Haag or 's-Gravenhage) (the seat of government of the country and the seat of the International Court of Justice) and Rotterdam. Dordrecht, Leiden, Delft and Gouda have town centers with many 17th-century buildings. Katwijk has its city center situated near the beach. Rotterdam has one of the world's largest harbours. Zoetermeer is a very new city, most of it was developed in 1970. Other New Towns are Capelle aan den IJssel, Hellevoetsluis and Spijkenisse, all three situated in the vicinity of Rotterdam.
South Holland makes up one region of the ISO world region code system, having the code -ZH. The area contains the mouth of two major European rivers: Rhine and Meuse. Rivers and other bodies of water include the Nieuwe Maas, Nieuwe Waterweg, Oude Maas, Haringvliet, Hollands Diep, Oude Rijn and Hollandse IJssel.

History

The province South Holland was formed in 1840, when the province Holland was split into northern (North Holland) and southern parts. Since then, South Holland has ceded three municipalities to the province of Utrecht: Oudewater in 1970, Woerden in 1989, and Vianen in 2002.

Municipalities

South Holland is divided into 77 municipalities (before 2006: 86) (with links to maps in brackets):

Municipality	opulation

On 1 January 2004 the municipalities De Lier, 's-Gravenzande, Monster, Naaldwijk and Wateringen were merged into a new municipality Westland, and Maasland and Schipluiden to another one, Midden-Delfland.
On 1 January 2006 Sassenheim, Voorhout and Warmond were merged into Teylingen, and Rijnsburg and Valkenburg were merged into Katwijk.
On 1 January 2007 Ter Aar and Liemeer were merged into Nieuwkoop, Bleiswijk, Berkel en Rodenrijs and Bergschenhoek were merged into a new municipallity Lansingerland and 's-Gravendeel was merged into Binnenmaas.

Islands

(from north to south and from west to east, with municipalities)

Rozenburg

Rozenburg (External Link)
part of Rotterdam (Botlek (External Link), Europoort (External Link), Maasvlakte (External Link))

IJsselmonde

Voorne-Putten

Hoeksche Waard

Eiland van Dordrecht (External Link

)

Dordrecht

Goeree-Overflakkee (External Link

)

Tiengemeten

part of Korendijk (External Link)

Subdivisions

There are four official regions (External Link

Zuid-Holland Zuid (External Link

)

Drechtsteden (External Link)
- Alblasserdam, Dordrecht, Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, Papendrecht, Sliedrecht, Zwijndrecht
the rest of the Hoeksche Waard (see above) and Tiengemeten
Goeree Overflakkee (see above)

Zuid-Holland West

Haaglanden (External Link), ;
- Delft, Den Haag, Leidschendam-Voorburg, Midden-Delfland, Pijnacker-Nootdorp, Rijswijk, Wassenaar, Westland, Zoetermeer.
Leidse regio (External Link); for a little map showing the municipalities see (External Link), p.4);
- Alkemade, Leiden, Leiderdorp, Oegstgeest, Voorschoten, Zoeterwoude
Duin- en Bollenstreek (External Link); for a little map showing the municipalities see the link above;
- Hillegom, Katwijk, Lisse, Noordwijk, Noordwijkerhout, Teylingen
Zuid-Holland Oost (Rijn&Gouwestreek (External Link) + De Waarden) (External Link); see also Midden-Holland (External Link)
- Krimpenerwaard
  - Bergambacht, Nederlek, Schoonhoven, Vlist, Ouderkerk
- Alblasserwaard-Vijfheerenlanden
  - Giessenlanden, Gorinchem, Graafstroom, Hardinxveld-Giessendam, Leerdam, Liesveld, Nieuw-Lekkerland, Zederik.
- Rijnstreek
  - Alphen aan den Rijn, Jacobswoude, Nieuwkoop, Rijnwoude
- Gouwestreek
  - Bodegraven, Boskoop, Gouda, Moordrecht, Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel, Reeuwijk, Waddinxveen, Zevenhuizen-Moerkapelle
- Rijnmond (External Link), also called Stadsregio Rotterdam (External Link); see also
  - Albrandswaard, Barendrecht, Bernisse, Brielle, Capelle aan den IJssel, Hellevoetsluis, Krimpen aan den IJssel, Lansingerland, Maassluis, Ridderkerk, Rotterdam, Rozenburg, Schiedam, Spijkenisse, Vlaardingen, Westvoorne

The term Zuidvleugel refers to a large part of the province ((External Link

), (External Link

), p. 13):

Drechtsteden and some more of the Hoeksche Waard: Binnenmaas, Oud-Beijerland

Zuid-Holland West

Rijnmond

a small part of Zuid-Holland Oost: Gorinchem, Hardinxveld-Giessendam

Regions in South Holland

South Holland has various regions that, for historical or other reasons, have their own identities. Some of these regions are unofficial, ill-defined and sometimes overlapping. Others are official and are part of regional groupings artificially created for various administrative purposes.
List of some of these unofficial and official regions in South Holland:

Alblasserwaard

Bollenstreek (the flower areas found in both North Holland and South Holland)

Delfland (the area around Delft)

Drechtsteden ("The Drecht towns")

Duin- en Bollenstreek (“Dune and Bulb Region”)

Goeree-Overflakkee

Gouwestreek ("The Gouwe Area")

Groene Hart ("The Green Heart")

Haaglanden (the area around The Hague)

Hoeksche Waard

Holland Rijnland

IJsselmonde (literally, "The Mouth of the IJssel", but an island in the Maas)

Kagerplassen (The Kaag Lakes)

Krimpenerwaard

Randstad

Rijnland ("Rhineland")

Rijnmond ("The Mouth of the Rhine")

Rijnstreek ("The Rhine Area")

Schieland

Voorne-Putten

Westland (the region, not the municipality itself)

Zuidvleugel ("The South Wing")Further Information

Get more info on 'South Holland'.

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