Schoonhoven

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Country	Netherlands
Schoonhoven

Province	South Holland
Area (2006)
- Municipality	6.96 km² (2.7 sq mi)
- Land	6.34 km² (2.4 sq mi)
- Water	0.63 km² (0.2 sq mi)
Population (1 January 2007)
- Municipality	12,195
- Density	1,924/km² (4,983.1/sq mi)
	Source: CBS, Statline.
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
- Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)

Schoonhoven (population: 12,207 in 2006) is a city in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of 6.96 km² (of which 0.67 km² water). There is a lot to do in Schoonhoven. There are a lot of pubs in the city and also a lot of sport activities. Most imported is the name of 'Zilverstad'. There are a lot of silver trade possibilities in this little town near the river 'De Lek'. Another less know tradition in Schoonhoven is that of clock builders. There are still small scale clock builders. Some of them can be visited. A beautiful example of large clockwork is the 'Van den Gheyn Beiaard' on the medieval town hall of Schoonhoven (external link 3). In the gold and silver and clock museum a lot of other large and small clocks can be found as well.

A historic map of Schoonhoven in 1652 (external link 4) shows the north and west town walls, which were common during medieval times in the Netherlands. One of the medieval entrance gates of Schoonhoven is still present and called 'Veerpoort' (Veer=ferry) next to the river 'lek' (external link 5). This 'Veerpoort' has protected Schoonhoven from the floods of the river Rhine and from the sea during the North Sea flood of 1953 water disaster and is still fully functional as a water barrier today. The ferry transporting both vehicles and pedestrians across the river 'Lek' (external link 6) is one of the many ferries that are present in South Holland to date. In the grassy fields around the city of Schoonhoven you can see a magnificent bird life such as these storks (external link 7).

In 2006 Schoonoven remembers its 725 year existence.

It received city rights in 1280.