Qualla: Kampen, Overijssel

Kampen, Overijssel: Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gouwenaar, CC0. Once upon a time the people of Kampen tied a cowbell to a sturgeon. A visiting bishop was on his way, and the only sturgeon the fishermen had caught needed to stay fresh until the great man arrived, so they put it back in the river with a bell around its neck so they could find it again. By the time the bishop arrived the fish was gone. The Kampers served eggs instead. That dish is still called Kampersteur - Kamper sturgeon - and the citizens of this small Hanseatic city on the IJssel are still patiently telling the story on themselves.

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Image: Gouwenaar | CC0

Kampen, Overijssel: The City of Fools

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Flowerflower, CC BY 3.0. Every country has its town-of-fools, and in the Netherlands that town is Kampen. The Kamper uien - literally Kamper onions - are a centuries-old genre of folk tales in which the locals do the most idiotic things imaginable with absolute conviction: belling sturgeons, hoisting cow...

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Image: Flowerflower | CC BY 3.0

Kampen, Overijssel: How Money Arrives, and Leaves

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Flo Beck, Public domain. It wasn't always self-deprecation. From the late 1200s through about 1430, Kampen was one of the most powerful trading cities in northwestern Europe. The IJssel was deep enough for serious river traffic, the Zuiderzee opened directly onto Baltic and North Sea routes, and the city...

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Image: Flo Beck | Public domain

Kampen, Overijssel: Three Gates and a Wall That Won

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gouwenaar, CC0. Most medieval Dutch cities tore their walls down in the 19th century to let traffic and railways through. Kampen, broke and uncelebrated, mostly didn't bother. The result is one of the best-preserved old town centres in the Netherlands. Three of the original city gates still stan...

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Image: Gouwenaar | CC0

Kampen, Overijssel: A City That Floats

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wutsje, CC BY-SA 3.0. Since November 2018, the historic centre of Kampen has technically been on an island. New flood-relief channels were cut to give the IJssel somewhere to go in high water, ringing the old town on all sides. It is the most recent chapter in a thousand-year argument between Kampen a...

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Image: Wutsje | CC BY-SA 3.0

Kampen, Overijssel: Famous Sons, Quiet Streets

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bogaerts, Rob / Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl. For a small town - around 37,000 people in the city itself - Kampen has been a productive nursery of talent. Jan Willem de Winter, born here in 1761, became a Dutch vice admiral in the French Revolutionary Wars - best known for commanding the Batavian fleet at the Battle of Campe...

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Image: Bogaerts, Rob / Anefo | CC BY-SA 3.0 nl