Hilversum - The Town of Hilversum

The Town of Hilversum

Hilversum lies 30 km (19 mi) south-east of Amsterdam and 20 km (12 mi) north of Utrecht.

The town is often called "media city" since it is the principal centre for radio and television broadcasting in the Netherlands. Radio Netherlands, heard worldwide via shortwave radio since the 1920s, is also based here. Hilversum is home to an extensive complex of audio and television studios belonging to the national broadcast production company NOS, as well as to the studios and offices of all the Dutch public broadcasting organizations and many commercial TV production companies. As a result many old radio sets in Britain had a "Hilversum” dial position marked on their tuning scales (along with Athlone, Kalundborg and others).

Hilversum is also known for its architecturally important "Raadhuis" or town hall, designed by Willem Dudok (1884–1974).

Hilversum has one public library, two swimming pools (Van Hellemond Sport and De Lieberg), a number of sporting halls and several shopping centers (such as Hilvertshof, De Gijsbrecht, Kerkelanden, Riebeeck Galerij and Seinhorst.) In the region the city centre is called 'het dorp' which means 'the village'.