Bergen op Zoom

Bergen op Zoom is a city and municipality in the Netherlands' North Brabant province, on the border with Zeeland, that received its town charter around 1212 and was raised to a margraviate in 1559. During the Eighty Years War it became known as the Virgin because it withstood sieges by Alessandro Farnese in 1588 and Ambrosio Spinola in 1622, though a French army finally breached its defenses in 1747. In the fifteenth century, under Jan II van Glymes, the city prospered as a trading hub hosting twice yearly international fairs, and it is still home to the Hotel de Draak, dated to 1397 and described as the oldest hotel in the Netherlands.