When it comes to the biggest city in the Netherlands, you might not immediately think of Texel. Most people think it is our capital Amsterdam or waver between Rotterdam and The Hague. If you take the number of inhabitants as a measure, you would be right because with arround 860,000 people, Amsterdam is by far the most populated city in our country.

Municipality with the biggest surface area

But when it comes to surface area, Texel really does turn out to be the biggest city in our country.

Over 600 years ago, the ‘land of Texel’ was granted privileges by Count William VI. What many people don’t know is that this makes Texel a real city. A city with seven different villages and a huge amount of countryside and water.

Combined, Den Burg, De Cocksdorp, De Koog, De Waal, Den Hoorn, Oosterend and Oudeschild may only have 13,645 inhabitants, the surface area of the municipality of Texel, however, is an impressive 585.96 km2. This includes polder and drainage waters. Compared to this, with a surface area of 219.3 km2, the municipality of Amsterdam is only a little place!

Municipality with the fewest traffic lights

Did you know that there are 140 km of paved cycle paths on Texel and that national forestry organisation Staatsbosbeheer alone has mapped out 180 km of walking trails? And did you know that Texel is also the municipality with the fewest traffic lights? That’s right, you can only find crossing wiht traffic lights on Texel. It is close to the ferry port to control traffic to and from the ferry.

We wish you a wonderful holiday in the biggest city of our country!