Mug Shot — «Hilversum - Town Hall»

From Hilversum, Netherlands

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Mug Details #5038

Starbucks City Mug Hilversum - Town Hall
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Hilversum is a medium-sized town in the Gooi area of North-Holland, the Netherlands. Once called the Garden of Amsterdam, most travelers still come over to cycle and hike through the surrounding forests and heath. It is often called "media city" since it is the principal centre for radio and television broadcasting in the Netherlands. Radio Netherlands, heard worldwide via shortwave radio since the 1920s, is also based here. Hilversum is home to an extensive complex of audio and television studios belonging to the national broadcast production company NOS, as well as to the studios and offices of all the Dutch public broadcasting organizations and many commercial TV production companies. As a result many old radio sets in Europe had a "Hilversum" dial position marked on their tuning scales. The city is also known for its modern architecture, with Dudok's Hilversum Town Hall (Raadhuis Hilversum) being the most significant design.

Town Hall - Dudok's masterpiece, from 1931, features in many architecture textbooks. The transition to a media economy started in 1920, when the Nederlandse Seintoestellen Fabriek (NSF) established a radio factory. Most radio stations settled in the large villas in the leafy areas of the town. The textile industry had by then declined and the last factory closed in the 1960s. Television gave a renewed boost to the local economy and the number of inhabitants grew to 103,000 in 1964. Hilversum became the media capital of the Netherlands, and Dutch television celebrities moved in the leafy neighborhoods surrounding the town. In 1973, Hilvertshof was opened, the first and back then the largest covered shopping centre of the Netherlands.

photo by mobydick74
edited by anonymous

  Netherlands, Hilversum, MIT

Karma: 9 Added by mobydick74 7 Comments

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