Zoetermeer
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Zoetermeer () is a city in the Western
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
, in the
province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
of
South Holland South Holland ( ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.8 million as of January 2023 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely populated areas. ...
. The municipality covers an area of of which is water. A small village until the late 1960s, it had 6,392 inhabitants in 1950. By 2023 this had grown to 126.998, making it the fourth largest population centre in the province of
South Holland South Holland ( ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.8 million as of January 2023 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely populated areas. ...
, after
Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...
,
The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
and
Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...
. While now a city in its own right, Zoetermeer started out as a suburb of The Hague and is still a part of the Greater The Hague urban area. The name Zoetermeer (Dutch for "freshwater lake") refers to the former lake north of the town (reclaimed in 1614). Because the name literally translates as "sweet lake" local residents have dubbed Zoetermeer "Sweet Lake City".


History

The Zoetermeer Archaeological Working Group has found some Roman shards, but they are so few that it is not clear whether Zoetermeer already existed in Roman times. Excavation did find older animal material. During the extraction of sand for the new housing estates, bones of mammoths, aurochs and saber-toothed tigers surfaced from great depths. Those animals walked around here ten to a hundred thousand years ago. The village of Zoetermeer is more than a thousand years old. In the Middle Ages, farmers dug so-called valley holes. The clay from those holes was used to improve their peatland. At the bottom of one such hole, Zoetermeer archaeologists found a carved wooden pole a few years ago, dating back to the year 985. Zoetermeer used to have to pay a certain tax, the botting, to the Count of Holland. It is known that only the oldest towns in this province paid that tax. This shows that Zoetermeer must have been founded at least before 1100. The first written evidence for the existence of a village on the site of present-day Zoetermeer is found in 1269. Count Floris V then gave away part of the tax revenue here as a dowry. In the 13th century a village center was formed, which still exists as the historic Dorpsstraat. Until the 17th century there was a lake called the Zoetermeer. A reminder of this is the "Zoetermeerse Plas" in the Noord Aa recreation area at the northern edge of town; this artificial lake was created when tons of sand were needed to lay the foundation for new housing development, and the area north of Zoetermeer was a good source of this resource. After the foundation of Zoetermeer, the settlement Zegwaart arose at the site of the present Zegwaartseweg. It was probably named after the sedge-covered worth, a low-lying area, where most people went to live. In the 13th century the settlement centers moved from Langeland and Zegwaartseweg to Dorpsstraat. In 1296 there was probably already a church on the site where the Oude Kerk now stands. Zoetermeer and Zegwaart remained independent, but formed one parish. Zoetermeer developed more prosperously over the centuries than Zegwaart. That village suffered relatively often from fires and floods. On May 1, 1935, both municipalities were merged into the present municipality of Zoetermeer. Seghwaert, an older way of spelling of Zegwaard, is now the name of a neighbourhood outside the old village centre. Zoetermeer began to grow slightly when the first train service came around 1868. A few decades later the Numico factory started near the station. The real growth started in 1966, when there was an urgent need of houses from people around The Hague. From then they started to build new quarters around the old village centre, so Zoetermeer began to grow and became a city in the meantime. Although contemporary Zoetermeer has the image of a modern city, there are still remains of the past. Like the old village centre with its small houses and the church with late medieval 15th-century clock tower (on picture, wooden top from 1642), and the old farms, surrounded by modern houses nowadays. Lake Dobbe divides the old town from the new city centre, with the medieval village centre on one side of the lake and the modern high-rise and skyscrapers on the other side.


Neighbourhoods

Zoetermeer is divided into 6 neighbourhoods (wijken), which cover most of the municipality's territory, with the remainder being the commercial area in the east and the mostly green and undeveloped ''Buitengebied'' in the west. Every neighbourhood has at least one (smaller) shopping mall and (except for Noordhove) a tram stop. Each neighbourhood consists of one or more ''wijken'', each of which has a separate postcode with differing last two digits following "27", from within Zoetermeer's 2710-2729 assigned postcodes (2700, 2701 and 2702 are used for
post-office box A post office box (commonly abbreviated as P.O. box, or also known as a postal box) is a uniquely addressable lockable box located on the premises of a post office. In some regions, particularly in Africa, there is no door-to-door delivery ...
es and the rest are not used ) These neighbourhoods have the following names (in brackets the year the neighbourhood was designated, although some of the neighbourhood already existed before designation):


Meerzicht (1969)

Literally meaning "lake view", Meerzicht is divided by the RandstadRail light rail tracks into Meerzicht-Oost (postcode 2715), with taller block of flats, and Meerzicht-West (postcode 2716) with low-rise residential development. Further to the west is the water-rich, 280-hectare urban park and recreation area Westerpark.


Buytenwegh de Leyens (1974)

The development of this area marked the shift to the development of single-family homes with private gardens more popular with Dutch families of that and coming decades, and encompasses the much older settlements of Buytenwegh (postcode 2717) and De Leyens (postcode 2725), and an area called "Buytenwegh de Leyens" per se (postcode 2726).


Centrum (1978)

The construction of a new centre of Zoetermeer actually started only in 1981, to serve as a shopping and administrative heart of the city. It followed modern
urban planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...
principles, placing parking garages, some storage facilities and a RandstadRail station on the ground level, which is covered by pedestrian- and bicycle-only area with shops on the lower floors and apartments above them, to ensure the centre does not die out outside of the business hours. The centre was completed in phases, the last one being the Cadenza residential development in 2017. The Stadscentrum has two RandstadRail stations. The Centrum-West station is the terminus of RandstadRail line 3 and is the locations of Zoetermeer's busiest
bus station A bus station, bus depot, or bus interchange is a structure where city buses or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. A bus station is larger than a bus stop, which is usually simply a place on the roadside, where buses can st ...
. The Stadscentrum includes the modern town hall of Zoetermeer and the local police station. A small lake called ''Grote Dobbe'' is placed directly in between Stadscentrum and Dorp, with the promenades and bicycle paths along the lake connecting the old and the new centres of Zoetermeer. The postcode for Stadscentrum is 2711.


Noordhove & Seghwaert (1986)

Noordhove (postcode 2728) is located between Seghwaert to the south and the artificial lake known as 'Zoetermeerse Plas' to the north. Unlike the other ''wijken'', it has no dedicated RandstadRail station, as both RandstadRail track branches run to the south of it.


Rokkeveen (1987)

Rokkeveen is separated from the other ''wijken'' by the A12 motorway and the Den Haag-Gouda railway line. As such, it enjoys direct access to Zoetermeer's railway stations and features numerous crossings under or over both transport corridors to allow access to the rest of Zoetermeer. Rokkeveen is further divided into Rokkeveen-Oost and Rokkeveen-West. A significant turning point in the development of this part of town was the Floriade 1992, which took place there. Rokkeveen-Oost (postcode 2718) extends between the railway stations Zoetermeer-Oost and Zoetermeer. The ''Mandelabrug'' (
Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...
bridge) was built over the latter for the Floriade (replacing an earlier smaller bridge, deemed insufficient for the increased traffic) as a covered bicycle and pedestrian passage over the railway, motorway and the RandstadRail, which adjoins it at this point from the North. The ''Mandelabrug'' connects the train station, the Randstadrail station Driemanspolder and the ''wijken'' of Rokkeveen-Oost and Driemanspolder. Next to the Mandelabrug runs a road crossing - a bridge between Afrikaweg on the northern side and Zuidweg in Rokkeveen. The other crossing are the road, pedestrian and bicycle tunnels between Tweede and Eerste Stationsstraat next to Zoetermeer-Oost train station, connecting Rokkeveen-Oost with Dorp. The historic
water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a water distribution system, distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towe ...
''De Tien Gemeenten'' is also now located in Rokkeveen-Oost. Rokkeveen-West (postcode 2719) mainly encompasses newer development on the grounds of the former Floriade-park, which includes both residential and office buildings.


Oosterheem (1999)

Oosterheem is the newest district of Zoetermeer, a Vinex-location and the source of Zoetermeer's most recent and continuing growth, which allowed it to become the third most populous municipality in South Holland. The districts development was not without problematic issues and delays, stemming first from the concerns over the environmental impacts of such development, and later from the planning and construction of
HSL-Zuid The HSL-Zuid (, ), is a 125 kilometre-long (78 mile) High-speed rail in the Netherlands, Dutch high-speed rail line running between the Amsterdam metropolitan area and the Belgium–Netherlands border, Belgian border, with a branch to Breda, ...
, which now forms the district's and municipality's eastern border. An enduring concern is an old pipeline, now used for the transportation of pressurized CO2, which runs through Oosterheem. Oosterheem is served by three stations on RandstadRail line 4, whose tracks branch out from the original RandstadRail loop in Seghwaert. It is further divided into Oosterheem-Oost (postcode 2721) and Oosterheem-West (postcode 2729).


Wijkposten

Zoetermeer has a network of "''wijkposten''" ("neighbourhood stations"), which provide more direct contacts between the municipality and the inhabitants of the neighbourhoods. The ''wijkposten'' employ personnel to deal with housing issues and provide space for local police officers. There are six ''wijkposten'' throughout Zoetermeer. Buytenwegh de Leyens, Meerzicht, Oosterheem and Rokkeveen have a ''wijkpost'' each, while Noordhove and Seghwaert share a common station and ''Wijkpost Center'' serves Dorp, Driemanspolder, Palenstein and Stadscentrum, which are for some purposes also lumped together as "Zoetermeer Centrum".


Other Former Neighbourhoods


Dorp (1962)

Literally meaning "village", this ''wijk'' covers mostly the territory of the pre-existing village of Zoetermeer, with the central ''Dorpstraat'' (village street) with historic buildings serving as a shopping and recreation area. The area also features the historic ''De Hoop''
windmill A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery. Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern period ...
, which unlike many other windmills in the area used for drainage, has always been used as a flourmill. The postcode for Zoetermeer-Dorp is 2712.


Driemanspolder (1965)

Driemanspolder (postcode 2713) was the first area to be developed as part of modern Zoetermeer, and contains mostly large multi-apartment buildings characteristic of the era. It is next to the A12 motorway, which forms the southern border of the ''wijk'', and directly north of the Zoetermeer railway station (which is on the other side of A12).


Palenstein (1966)

Palenstein (postcode 2722) is north of the Dorp, deriving its name from the former Castle of Palenstein, which used to be there. It mainly consists of highrise residential development. A rejuvenation project was started in Palenstein in 2006, providing for the renovation of some and demolition of other older buildings.


Seghwaert (1975)

Seghwaert was formed around what was the former village of Zegwaart (or Zegwaard), which fused with Zoetermeer in 1935, using the archaic spelling of the locale's name. The old Zegwaart was a ribbon development along what remains until today as ''Zegwaartseweg'', which is perpendicular to ''Dorpstraat''. It is further divided into Seghwaert-Oost (postcode 2723), -Midden (postcode 2724) and -Noord (postcode 2727).


Economy

Zoetermeer's economy is primarily dependent and revolving around
Information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...
. With modern infrastructure, a highly digitised centre called 'het Forum' that houses city hall, the central library and numerous other organisations, and many schools that offer IT-related education, it also is a major software development centre, with many software developers based here. There are a large number of IT companies with branches in Zoetermeer, like
Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...
, which has its Dutch Tech Campus in Zoetermeer, and
Toshiba is a Japanese multinational electronics company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components, semiconductors ...
Medical Systems Europe BV. 20% of the population of Zoetermeer has an IT-related job. The local government designates a comparatively large part of the budget to computers for schools. To stress the IT tradition of Zoetermeer, the city is the first in the world to have a city hall in
Second Life ''Second Life'' is a multiplayer virtual world that allows people to create an Avatar (computing), avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user-created content within a multi-user online environment. Developed for person ...
.


Transport


Light rail

The former Zoetermeer Stadslijn urban railway was rebuilt as light rail in 2006/2007. The stadslijn was the only urban railway in The Netherlands. It had 12 stations in Zoetermeer and ran to and from
The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
Central Station. The new
light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...
system is part of the RandstadRail network between
The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
,
Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...
and Zoetermeer. Besides the rebuilt original Stadslijn, which now has 13 stations, the added Oosterheemlijn leads to the new suburb Oosterheem. The Oosterheemlijn has five stations and ends at the heavy rail Station Lansingerland-Zoetermeer.


Heavy rail

Zoetermeer has three stations on the main railway between The Hague and Utrecht. Zoetermeer-Zegwaard, built when the city was connected by railway in 1868, burnt down in 1906. Later the station reopened 1965 on the same location as Zoetermeer-Oost. The main station, Zoetermeer station, was opened in 1973. Lastly, the newest station, Station Lansingerland-Zoetermeer, was completed in May 2019. The
HSL-Zuid The HSL-Zuid (, ), is a 125 kilometre-long (78 mile) High-speed rail in the Netherlands, Dutch high-speed rail line running between the Amsterdam metropolitan area and the Belgium–Netherlands border, Belgian border, with a branch to Breda, ...
high speed line from
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
to
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
passes Zoetermeer on its eastern side. Although there have been proposals to open a station on the line, this seems highly unlikely this will be realized.


Motorway

Zoetermeer is next to the A12 motorway, connecting The Hague with
Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...
,
Arnhem Arnhem ( ; ; Central Dutch dialects, Ernems: ''Èrnem'') is a Cities of the Netherlands, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands, near the German border. It is the capita ...
and
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
.


Religion

Zoetermeer is the only place in the Netherlands with a
temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...
of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...
. It is situated near the old village centre.


Entertainment and recreation

This former
new town New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz * New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** New (Paul McCartney song), "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * New (EP), ''New'' (EP), ...
used to be a satellite city of
The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
, as many residents worked, shopped and were entertained in The Hague. With the growth of Zoetermeer came a large theatre, mega cinema, and other entertainment such as go-karts, laser gaming, survival centre, and a golf centre.


Museums

The city has two museums, Museum deVoorde and the National Videogame Museum. In 2022, subsidy for Museum deVoorde was stopped by the local government because of low visitor numbers after the COVID19-pandemic.


SnowWorld

SnowWorld was the first indoor ski slope made of real snow in Europe, opened in 1996. It now has three slopes, of which the slope is the longest. Plans are being made to extend this to . Open since December 2016, SnowWorld attracts over a million visitors each year, making it the most important tourist attraction in Zoetermeer.


Dutch Water Dreams

Dutch Water Dreams (DWD) was an artificial Olympic wild water
rafting Rafting and whitewater rafting are recreational outdoor activities which use an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other body of water. This is often done on whitewater or different degrees of rough water. Dealing with risk is often a ...
circuit. It was a copy of the one built in
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
for the 2008
Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...
and was mainly used for training by
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
an
rafting Rafting and whitewater rafting are recreational outdoor activities which use an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other body of water. This is often done on whitewater or different degrees of rough water. Dealing with risk is often a ...
teams, and also for
team building Team building is a collective term for various types of activities used to enhance social relations and define roles within teams, often involving collaborative tasks. It is distinct from team training, which is designed by a combination of busin ...
and recreation. DWD also had an indoor Flowrider centre. Dutch Water Dreams closed in 2015.


Silverdome

Silverdome is an indoor ice skating track and convention centre. It is also home to the only curling rink in the Netherlands. Outside the skating season it is used as a convention centre and concert hall and for large
rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...
s.


Parks

Zoetermeer has many parks, the biggest being the "Westerpark" on the west side of town. It is almost as large as Central Park in New York. Other notable parks are the "Buytenpark", the "Aldo van Eyckpark", the "Binnenpark", the "Van Tuyllpark (with Dutch Water Dreams and Aquapark Keerpunt), the "Hoekstrapark", the "Wilhelminapark", the " floriade park", the "Seghwaertse Hout" and the "Seghwaertpark". At the north side there is a lake, the "Zoetermeerse Plas", often called "Noord Aa" because it is in the Noord Aa Recreational Area. There is a beach along one side of the lake and a marina on the other. Wind- and
kite surfing Kiteboarding or kitesurfing is a sport that involves using wind power with a large power kite to pull a rider across a water, land, snow, sand, or other surface. It combines the aspects of paragliding, surfing, windsurfing, skateboarding, snow ...
, sailing and fishing are the most popular activities on the lake. On both the west and east side of the city forests are being planted, called " Balijbos" (west side) and Bentwoud (east side). These forests are intended to form a "natural" barrier between The Hague and Zoetermeer.


International relations


Twin towns – Sister cities

Zoetermeer is twinned with:


Notable people


Public thinking & public service

* Antonius van den Broek (1870 in Zoetermeer - 1926), amateur physicist and lawyer * Hilbrand Nawijn (born 1948), Dutch politician, lives in Zoetermeer * Bert van der Spek (born 1949 in Zoetermeer), ancient historian, specializing in the
Seleucid Empire The Seleucid Empire ( ) was a Greek state in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 312 BC by the Macedonian general Seleucus I Nicator, following the division of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great ...
* Charlie Aptroot (born 1950), Dutch politician, Mayor of Zoetermeer since 2012 *
Dick Schoof Hendrikus Wilhelmus Maria "Dick" Schoof (born 8 March 1957) is a Dutch politician and civil servant serving as the prime minister of the Netherlands of the Schoof cabinet since 2 July 2024. Schoof previously worked as secretary-general of the M ...
(born 1957), Dutch civil servant and politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands since 2024, lives in Zoetermeer * Martijn van Dam (born 1978 in Zoetermeer), Dutch engineer and politician, member of the Second Rutte cabinet * Rutger de Regt (born 1979 in Zoetermeer), furniture designer * Samira Rafaela (born 1989), Dutch politician


The arts

* Dennis Princewell Stehr (born 1984 in Zoetermeer) stage name ''
Mr Probz Dennis Princewell Stehr (born May 15, 1984), known professionally as Mr. Probz, is a Dutch record producer, singer and rapper. He became known for the songs "Drivin'", "Sukkel voor de liefde", "Nothing Really Matters (Mr. Probz song), Nothing Re ...
'', Dutch singer-songwriter, rapper, producer and actor * San Holo (born 1990 in Zoetermeer) a Dutch DJ, musician, record producer and composer * Shandro Jahangier (born 1992 in Zoetermeer) stage name '' Sandro Silva'', a Dutch DJ and record producer * Romee Strijd (born 1995 in Zoetermeer) a Dutch model IMDb Database
retrieved 22 December 2019


Sport

* Jopie Selbach (1918–1998 in Zoetermeer) Dutch freestyle swimmer, gold medallist at the
1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...
* Xenia Stad-de Jong (1922–2012 in Zoetermeer), Dutch track and field athlete, gold medallist at the
1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and officially branded as London 1948, were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus cau ...
* Monique Bolleboom (born 1962 in Zoetermeer) a former artistic gymnast, competed at the
1976 Summer Olympics The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Montreal 1976 (), were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal ...
* Patrick van Leeuwen (born 1969), professional football manager and former player * Karen Venhuizen (born 1984 in Zoetermeer) a Dutch former competitive figure skater * Suzanne Harmes (born 1986 in Zoetermeer) a Dutch gymnast, competed at the
2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...
and
2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...
* Remon van Bochoven (born 1989 in Zoetermeer) a Dutch footballer, over 185 club caps * Leroy Fer (born 1990 in Zoetermeer) a Dutch footballer, over 300 club caps * Yara van Kerkhof (born 1990 in Zoetermeer) a Dutch short track speed skater, silver medallist at the
2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and also known as PyeongChang 2018 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Ko ...
* Charlton Vicento (born 1991 in Zoetermeer) is a Curaçaoan footballer with over 150 club caps


Panorama


References


External links


Official website (Dutch)

Zoetermeer in Beeld (Dutch)
{{Authority control Municipalities of South Holland Populated places in South Holland Articles containing video clips