It mainly consists of highrise residential development. Palenstein (postcode 2722) is north of the Dorp, deriving its name from the former Castle of Palenstein, which used to stand there. It is next to the A12 motorway, which forms the southern border of the wijk, and directly north of the Zoetermeer railway station (which is on the other side of A12). The postcode for Zoetermeer-Dorp is 2712.ĭriemanspolder (postcode 2713) was the first area to be developed as part of modern Zoetermeer, and contains mostly large multi-apartment buildings characteristic of the era. The area also features the historic De Hoop windmill, which unlike many other windmills in the area used for drainage, has always been used as a flowermill. Literally meaning "village", this wijk covers mostly the territory of the pre-existing village of Zoetermeer, with the central Dorpstraat (village street) with historic buildings serving as a shopping and recreation area. These neighbourhoods have the following names (in brackets the year the neighbourhood was designated, although some of the neighbourhood already existed before designation):Īerial view of Zoetermeer. Each neighbourhood consists of one or more wijken, each of which has a separate postcode with differing last two digits following "27", from within Zoetermeer's 2710-2729 assigned postcodes (2700, 27 are used for post-office boxes and the rest are not used as of 2012 ) Every neighbourhood has at least one (smaller) shopping mall and (except for Noordhove) a tram stop. Zoetermeer is divided into 10 neighbourhoods, which cover most of the municipality's territory, with the remainder being the commercial area in the east and the mostly green and undeveloped Buitengebied in the west. Lake Dobbe divides the old town from the new city centre, with the medieval village centre on one side of the lake and the modern high-rise and skyscrapers on the other side.ĭemographics Ethnic composition Like the old village centre with its small houses and the church with late medieval 15th-century clock tower (on picture, wooden top from 1642), and the old farms, surrounded by modern houses nowadays. From then they started to build new quarters around the old village centre, so Zoetermeer began to grow and became a city in the meantime.Īlthough contemporary Zoetermeer has the image of a modern city, there are still remains of the past. The real growth started in 1966, when there was an urgent need of houses from people around The Hague. A few decades later the Numico factory started near the station. Zoetermeer began to grow slightly when the first train service came around 1868.