Places Named After The River Amstel
Amsterdam took its name from the river. The city developed out of a small fishing village called "Amstelredam", built in the 13th century alongside a dam at the mouth of the river. The town was granted city rights around 1300. The hamlet developed into the small town "Amsteldam", which later became "Amsterdam".
The area through which the river passes is known as the Amstelland. The city and municipality of Amstelveen, the municipality of Ouder-Amstel, the towns of Ouderkerk aan de Amstel and Nes aan de Amstel are all named after the river as well. Amsterdam has a street called Amstel (along the river), a square called Amstelveld and a train station called Amsterdam Amstel.
In the former Dutch colonies in North America, a town was captured from the Swedes in 1655 and renamed Nieuw-Amstel. It is now known as New Castle, Delaware.
Read more about this topic: Amstel
Famous quotes containing the words places, named and/or river:
“All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“Histories of the world omitted China; if a Chinaman invented compass or movable type or gunpowder we promptly “forgot it” and named their European inventors. In short, we regarded China as a sort of different and quite inconsequential planet.”
—W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt)
“A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself—for it is from the soil, both from its depth and from its surface, that a river has its beginning.”
—Laura Gilpin (1891–1979)