De Parken is a neighbourhood of the city of Apeldoorn. This residential area arose between the old village and the small settlement around Het Loo Palace. The neighborhood is named after the more or less contiguous parks: Oranjepark, Wilhelminapark, Prinsenpark and Verzetsstrijderspark.

In the 19th century the area had three estates: De Pasch, De Vlijt and Sophia's Hoeve. From 1874 until the beginning of the 20th century, these were acquired by project developers. They built the public parks and roads and sold plots of land for the construction of villas. Most of the houses were built between 1880 and 1920.

Initially, the neighbourhood was very popular with wealthy pensioners, manufacturers and senior civil servants from the west of the Netherlands. Even today the Parkenbuurt is a very popular residential area, because of its location close to the center of Apeldoorn, but also because of the green park-like surroundings, with relatively large gardens and tree-lined streets.

Pictures: main image “Oranjepark”, PiP1 “Wilhelminapark”, PiP2 “Verzetstyrijderspark”and PiP3 “Prinsenpark”.