Every design for Gorinchem

Gorinchem began as a settlement of fishermen and farmers on raised ground where the Linge flows into the Merwede, and its old name, Goriks Heem, means the home of Gorik. Under the Lords of Arkel it gained walls, gates and city rights; later it passed to Holland and grew into the county's eighth city. During the Eighty Years' War the Watergeuzen took Gorinchem and captured nineteen priests and monks who refused to renounce their faith; hanged in Brielle, they became known as the Martyrs of Gorkum and are still remembered here every year.

Walking the ramparts today brings a strange calm. The old walls were replaced by a new ring of eleven bastions that doubled the size of the town, later joined the Dutch Water Line, and still stand almost complete. On one side lie the rooftops of the old centre, on the other the wide river.

The Dalempoort, the only one of the four city gates left standing, is where the town shows its age most proudly – a gate worth wearing.