A Day with Dickens in Deventer

 

Returning now to the holiday season in Europe, we take you to Deventer in the Netherlands…

A remarkable city with beautiful medieval architecture and a towering Gothic cathedral on a hill, Deventer is much larger than we expected. The earliest settlement here dates to the Bronze Age, giving the area an extensive and extremely rich history.   A bustling port city, it was an important part of Charlemagne’s empirical plans for Europe, and experienced raids and sacking by Saxons and Vikings.  Later, it would become a member of the powerful Hanseatic League, a coalition of trade merchants and guilds across Northern Europe.  It’s strategic location on the Ijssel River helped to make Deventer an important trade city throughout much of the Middle Ages, and more recently a major industrial city in the Netherlands.

Deventer is an inviting place and there is much to see and do, including a few major fairs and festivals.  The highlight of the holiday season is the Dickens Festijn, a tribute to British writer Charles Dickens, held a few weeks before Christmas in the city’s historic Bergkwartier. For two days this medieval neighborhood is transformed into 19th century England for a Dickensian Christmas.  The narrow streets bustle with activity as the local characters go about their daily routines, greeting passersby on the street, selling their wares, and visiting with friends.  You may get a glimpse of ‘Queen Victoria’, ‘Prince Albert’ and guests having tea, or receive a greeting from Samuel Pickwick, Esquire outside of the Pickwick Club…all the while the chimney sweeps linger on the rooftops, orphan children and scamps make their way through the shoppers, and carolers sing songs of the season…

See part 2 of the Dickens Festijn


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