Dordrecht: A Self-Guided Walking Tour of Holland's Oldest City

Dordrecht may be the oldest city in Holland, but most visitors have never heard of it. On this self-guided audio tour, you'll trace how the city's medieval monopoly on river trade made it the most powerful city in Holland and hear how that ended in a single night. Starting at Scheffersplein, beside a statue whose rejected commission went to a sculptor who later created the Statue of Liberty, you'll walk the Voorstraat the lowest sea dike in the Netherlands. You'll pass through the narrowest house in Dordrecht, a 17th-century almshouse built by a notorious loan shark hoping to save his soul, and along a street that once housed 70 wine cellars. At the harbourfront, hear how the Saint Elizabeth flood of 1421 wiped out Dordrecht's fortune overnight, and pass the city gate where Charles V, Napoleon, and William of Orange all entered. The tour ends at the statue of Johan and Cornelis de Witt two brothers who rose to lead the Dutch Republic before meeting a brutal end.