Vlaardingen – South Holland
e-mail: jhe@vlaardingen.nl Population: 74,000 Location: south-western Holland, near the city of Rotterdam, in the province of South Holland, 20 km from the sea Founded: 13th century, granted city rights in 1273. The city takes its name from the Vlaerdingh Brook that flows through the Vlaardingen area. Remains of an ancient settlement more than 5,000 years old were discovered on the site of today’s the city, and the settlement was named the Vlaardingen culture for its singularity.
Vlaardingen was once a very important fishing town and was particularly famous for supplying herring to the Dutch market.
Beginning in the second half of the 20th century, the city became more of an industrialised region with the development of the petrochemical industry. Vlaardingen is the headquarters of the largest research and development centre for Unilever in Western Europe.
The local government is comprised of a mayor and his four representatives; the highest administrative body is the city council, with 35 members recruited from ten different political parties. Collaboration between the cities of Vlaardingen and Moravská Třebová was officially launched in 1992, which means that in 2002 we celebrated the tenth anniversary of the foundation of our partnership relationship. In June 2003, a new collaboration contract for an unspecified period was concluded .