Eindhoven ‘City of Light'

Eindhoven is sometimes called the ‘City of Light' of the north. That's not so surprising, because the city's explosive growth since the end of the eighteenth century has been closely linked to that of Philips. Following the establishment of Philips, workers from all over the Netherlands came to Eindhoven to work in the company's factories.

Eindhoven presents itself as a ‘City of Light' by special lighting effects for all kinds of outdoor and public objects (buildings and works of art, as well as public parks and gardens), or projecting images or poetic texts. Would you like to find out more about what this means in practice, or see some examples? Take a look at http://www.lichtstad.eindhoven.nl/ (in Dutch).

The name ‘City of Light' is also closely related to the liberation of Eindhoven on 18 September 1944, when the British and American forces ended the German occupation of the city. That led to a major public celebration (for some impressive historical photos, take a look at: http://www.stichting18september.nl/ (choose English) under ‘Impressies Eindhovense bevrijding').

Right from the first anniversary of the liberation of Eindhoven, everyone was encouraged to display special lights. The tradition fell into disuse at the end of the 1960s, but the ‘Lichtjesroute' (route of lights) was revived in 1984. The ‘Lichtjesroute' now follows a 22 kilometer route through the city with striking, creative light decorations. You can follow the ‘Lichtjesroute' from 18 September until the second weekend of October. For more information, visit http://www.lichtjesroute.nl/ (in Dutch).