Bredevoort

Bredevoort or Brevoort is a small city with Town privileges of about 1600 inhabitants, located in the municipality of Aalten, Netherlands. It is situated between the towns of Aalten and Winterswijk.Bredevoort has presented itself as Bredevoort boekenstad, after the examples of Hay-on-Wye in Wales and Redu in Belgium. There are now more than twenty second-hand book shops in the town.Bredevoort was a herrschaft and a separate municipality until 1818. The villages Aalten, Dinxperlo and Winterswijk included the Fiefdom of Bredevoort when it became a part of Aalten in 1818.HistoryThe name Bredevoort appears for the first time on a list of properties belonging to the archbishop of Cologne in 1188, who owned shares of the castle Bredevoort. When the count of Steinfurt tried to sell his share of the castle to the bishop of Munster and the count of Loon tried to sell his share to the count of Gelderland, a conflict broke out between the bishop and the count of Gelderland. The fight lasted for almost two centuries.