1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Zwolle

ZWOLLE, the capital of the province of Overysel, Holland, on the Zwarte Water, and a junction station 241/2 m. N. E. of Harderwyk. Pop. (1905) 23,773. It is the centre of the whole northern and eastern canal systems, and by means of the short canal the Willemsvaart, which joins the Zwarte Water and the Ysel, has regular steamboat communication with Kampen and Amsterdam. The Groote Kerk, of St Michael (first half of the 15th century) occupies the site of an earlier church of which an interesting 11th-century bas relief remains. The church contains a richly carved pulpit, the work of Adam Straes van Weilborch about 1620, and there is besides some good carving and a fine organ (1721). The Roman Catholic church, also dedicated to St Michael, dates from the end of the 14th century. The modernized town hall was originally built in 1448. Mention should also be made of the Sassen Poort, one of the old city gates; a gild-house (1571); the provincial government offices, containing the archives and a museum of antiquities and cultural history. Three miles from Zwolle, on a slight eminence called the Agnietenberg, or hill of St Agnes, once stood the Augustinian convent in which Thomas à Kempis spent the greatest part of his life and died in 1471. Zwolle has a considerable trade by river, a large fish market, and the most important cattle market in Holland after Rotterdam. The more important industries comprise cotton manufactures, iron works, boat-building, dyeing and bleaching, tanning, rope-making and salt-making.