Dorestad was an early medieval emporium, located in the southeast of the province of Utrecht in the Netherlands, close to the modern-day town of Wijk bij Duurstede.
It flourished during the 8th to early 9th centuries, as an important port on the northeastern shipping routes due to its proximity to the fork in the Rhine, with access to Germany via the Nederrijn, to the southern Netherlands, northern France, and England, and to the northern Netherlands, northern Germany, and Scandinavia.
Dorestad in the network of main Northern European trade routes in the Early Middle Ages (c. 800)
Denier of Lothair I, struck in Dorestad (DORESTATVS) c. 851–855.
The Dorestad Fibula (c. 775–800) was found in a well. It is currently in the Oudheden Rijksmuseum in Leiden.
The Netherlands, informally Holland, is a country located in northwestern Europe with overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Netherlands consists of twelve provinces; it borders Germany to the east and Belgium to the south, with a North Sea coastline to the north and west. It shares maritime borders with the United Kingdom, Germany, and Belgium. The official language is Dutch, with West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland. Dutch, English, and Papiamento are official in the Caribbean territories.
The Netherlands in 5500 BC
Rorik of Dorestad, Viking ruler of Friesland (romantic 1912 depiction)
A medieval tomb of the Brabantian knight Arnold van der Sluijs
Charles V, Lord of the Netherlands at the Battle of Mühlberg (1547), by Titian