Naarden

Naarden is a city in the Gooi region of North Holland, Netherlands, incorporated into the municipality of Gooise Meren since 2016, with a 2021 population of 17,555. Granted city rights in 1300, the only town in the Gooi to hold them, it became a fortified garrison town where Spanish soldiers massacred roughly 700 inhabitants in 1572; its star-shaped fortifications, part of the restored Defense Line of Amsterdam, later served as a rallying point for Allied bombers returning from raids on Germany in the Second World War.