Apeldoorn [ˈaːpəɫ.ˌdɔːrn] is a municipality and city in the province of Gelderland, about 60 miles south east of Amsterdam, in the centre of the Netherlands. It is a regional centre. The municipality of Apeldoorn, including villages like Beekbergen, Loenen and Hoenderloo, has over 155,000 inhabitants . The western half of the municipality lies on the Veluwe ridge, the eastern half lies in the IJssel valley. Fred de Graaf of the VVD is the mayor of Apeldoorn. Very small hamlets are printed in italics. The oldest known reference to Apeldoorn, then called... Appoldro, dates from the 8th century. The settlement came into being at the point where the old road from Amersfoort to Deventer crossed that from Arnhem to Zwolle. A 1740 map refers to it as Appeldoorn. Close by is the favourite country-seat of the royal family of the Netherlands called the palace het Nieuwe Loo . It was originally a hunting lodge of the dukes of Gelderland, but in its present form dates chiefly from the time of the then Stadtholder William III of England .
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