Scherpenzeel

Scherpenzeel is a municipality and a metropolis in the Dutch province of Gelderland. As of 2017, it has a population of nine,724, with about 6,000 possessing suffrage. The network of Scherpenzeel also contains part of the hamlet Moorst. Centuries in the past, what is now the Netherlands become still a group of small states, ruled by means of bishops, earls, dukes, and lords. These rulers were constantly at warfare over territory, inflicting fortifications and defenses to be constructed in border areas.

This turned into the case inside the Veluwe hills, which lay alongside the border of what is now Utrecht and Gelderland, where many castles and fortresses were built as secure havens. Hence, the name Scherpenzeel, previously called Scarpenzele, permits us to deduce that there was a settlement constructed around a residence zele with sharpened poles scarpen, the prototype of an vintage fort. The ownership of Scherpenzeel changed into at diverse instances claimed by means of either Gelderland or Utrecht, but it has now been part of Gelderland since 1830.