Arnhem

A city that was almost entirely destroyed in 1944 and rebuilt with enough architectural confidence to make the postwar fabric interesting in its own right — while the bridge at the centre of it all still stands.

The John Frost Bridge — site of the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944, named after the British colonel who held it for four days

The City in 60 Seconds

In September 1944, the Allied forces launched Operation Market Garden — the largest airborne operation in history. British paratroopers of the 1st Airborne Division were dropped near Arnhem with orders to capture and hold the bridge over the Rhine, the last major obstacle before Germany. They held it for four days against overwhelming German armoured resistance. The relief force never arrived. Of the 10,000 men who dropped, fewer than 2,500 returned. The operation failed, and the war in the Netherlands continued for another eight months.

The John Frost Bridge — named after the British colonel who commanded the defence — still spans the Rhine at the same point. The city was largely destroyed during the battle and in its aftermath, then rebuilt in the 1950s and 60s in a style that is, by postwar reconstruction standards, genuinely interesting: wider streets, modernist public buildings, but with enough civic ambition to produce a city centre that works.

Arnhem also has the Netherlands Open Air Museum — 80 historic buildings relocated from across the country onto a 44-hectare park — and Burgers’ Zoo, consistently rated among the best zoos in Europe. A full day is worth it.

Route

1. John Frost Bridge — Where the Battle Was Fought

Time here: 30 minutes

The John Frost Bridge (John Frostbrug) spans the Rhine 500 metres east of the city centre. Walk to it from the centre and stand on the northern approach — this is where the British paratroopers dug in for four days in September 1944, fighting German armour from the buildings on the bridge ramp with rifles, PIAT anti-tank guns, and increasingly desperate improvisation.

The current bridge is a postwar reconstruction — the original was destroyed in 1945. But the location, the Rhine below, and the scale of the crossing make the history legible: you can immediately see why the bridge mattered (it was the last Rhine crossing before Germany) and why holding it was so difficult (open ground, overlooked from all sides, no room for retreat).

Don’t miss: The memorial plaques on the northern bridgehead recording the battle and naming the units involved. On the northern bank, a short walk west, is the Airborne Monument — a simple stone marker with an eagle, one of the quieter WWII memorials in the Netherlands.

Practical tip: The bridge is a working road bridge. Walk across it (pedestrian path on the side) for the view of the Rhine — the river is wide here and the sense of scale is important for understanding the operation.

Walk to stop 2: From the bridge, walk north along the Marktstraat into the city centre — 10 minutes.

2. Korenmarkt & City Centre — Postwar Arnhem

Time here: 25 minutes

The Korenmarkt is Arnhem’s main square — a postwar creation, designed in the 1950s on the footprint of streets and buildings destroyed in 1944. It works better than most postwar city centres: human-scaled, tree-lined, with a mixture of 1950s modernist buildings and later additions that don’t fight each other.

Walk the Ketelstraat and Roggestraat — the main shopping streets — to get a sense of the 1950s fabric. The buildings are not grand, but they are decent examples of Dutch postwar construction: brick, rational, with good proportions and occasional ornamental touches that the strict postwar modernists disapproved of.

The Sabelspoort — one of the few medieval structures to survive the war — stands on the Korenmarkt: a 14th-century city gate tower that is now completely embedded in the surrounding commercial buildings, making it a small archaeological surprise in the middle of the shopping district.

Don’t miss: The Coehoorn park to the north of the Korenmarkt — a postwar park on the line of the old city moat, with good views of the city’s topography (Arnhem is one of the few Dutch cities with significant elevation changes, built on the edge of the Veluwezoom ridge).

Walk to stop 3: Bus from the city centre to the Netherlands Open Air Museum (bus 3 from Willemsplein, 10 minutes).

3. Nederlands Openluchtmuseum — A Country in 44 Hectares

Time here: 90 minutes (minimum)

The Netherlands Open Air Museum (Nederlands Openluchtmuseum) is exactly what it says: 80 historic buildings relocated from across the Netherlands onto a 44-hectare park on the outskirts of Arnhem, arranged to represent the way different Dutch regions looked and lived from the 17th to the 20th century.

It sounds like a theme park. It isn’t. The buildings are real — a farmhouse from Friesland, a windmill from Zeeland, a weaver’s house from Twente, a trawler from the Zuider Zee — and they’re furnished and staffed with people who demonstrate traditional crafts and explain how the buildings were originally used. Walking from a Zaan-region merchant house to a Drenthe peat worker’s cottage to a 1950s urban living room is a compressed history of Dutch material culture.

The museum also holds an extraordinary collection of traditional Dutch dress — the regional costumes that Dutch people actually wore until living memory, which are far more diverse and specific than the tourist clichés of wooden shoes and windmills.

Don’t miss: The Openluchtmuseum’s 1950s street — a recreation of a Dutch high street circa 1955, complete with a snackbar, a radio shop, a pharmacy, and a cinema showing old films. It’s the museum’s most popular section and also the most poignant: within living memory for many Dutch visitors, but completely foreign to most international tourists.

Practical tip: Entry €20; allow at least 2 hours for justice. The onsite bakery makes traditional Dutch bread.

Walk to stop 4: From the museum, bus back to the centre, then catch bus 3 to Burgers’ Zoo (or walk through the Sonsbeek park — 30 minutes on foot).

4. Sonsbeek Park — The City’s Green Lung

Time here: 30 minutes

Sonsbeek is the largest urban park in Arnhem — 60 hectares of landscaped parkland with a waterfall, a historic manor house (Sonsbeek House), and excellent views over the Rhine valley and the Betuwe below. It’s where Arnhem residents spend their weekends, and it’s good enough to understand why.

The park is used for the Sonsbeek sculpture exhibition (held every decade or so, most recently in 2021) — an international outdoor sculpture show that places contemporary works throughout the park and has been running since 1949. Many of the best pieces stay permanently, making the park also a sculpture garden.

Don’t miss: The view from the upper terrace of Sonsbeek House looking south over the river — on a clear day the landscape stretches across the Betuwe to the horizon, the same flat river country that the British paratroopers crossed in 1944.

Walk to stop 5: From Sonsbeek, continue north on foot (15 minutes) or by bus to Burgers’ Zoo.

5. Burgers’ Zoo — The Best Zoo in the Netherlands

Time here: 90 minutes

Burgers’ Zoo is consistently rated the best zoo in the Netherlands and one of the best in Europe — not for its animal collection alone, but for its concept. Rather than displaying animals in enclosures, Burgers’ has built a series of ecosystems: a tropical rainforest under glass (the largest covered tropical environment in Europe), a mangrove swamp, a savannah, an ocean habitat with sharks and rays, and a desert environment with free-roaming animals.

The Bush — the tropical rainforest greenhouse — is the most extraordinary: 1.5 hectares of real tropical vegetation under a glass roof, with 300 animal species living in it. You walk through it rather than looking at it through glass. The butterflies are on you before you notice them.

The zoo was founded in 1913 and remains family-owned by the Burgers family — a continuity of vision that shows in every decision. The landscaping is serious, the welfare standards are high, and the educational content is presented without condescension.

Practical tip: Entry €25–30 depending on season; allow at least 2 hours. Burgers’ is 3 km north of Arnhem centre — bus 3 from Arnhem station or city centre.

Where to Eat & Drink

• Coffee: Coffee Fellows (Korenmarkt 14) — central, reliable, good espresso.
• Lunch: Restaurant Rozet (Kortestraat 16) — in Arnhem’s cultural centre, good Dutch lunch menu with a terrace.
• End-of-tour drink: Stadsbrouwerij Kruisvaart (Klarendalseweg) — Arnhem’s craft brewery in the Klarendal neighbourhood, good taproom with rotating seasonal beers.

Practical Info

History & Fun Facts

• “A Bridge Too Far.” The phrase was coined by British Lieutenant-General Frederick Browning, who told Field Marshal Montgomery before Operation Market Garden: “I think we may be going a bridge too far.” He was right. The Allied plan required capturing eight bridges in sequence; the last one — at Arnhem — failed.
• The British paratroopers dropped too far from the bridge. A key tactical error of the operation was that the paratroopers were dropped 8 km west of the bridge, partly because the planners feared German anti-aircraft fire. By the time they reached Arnhem, the Germans had reinforced. Only one battalion — Lieutenant Colonel John Frost’s 2nd Battalion — reached the northern bridgehead.
• The Dutch civilian population suffered. The Germans imposed a food blockade on the western Netherlands as punishment for a Dutch railway workers’ strike called to support the Allied advance. The resulting Hunger Winter (Hongerwinter) of 1944–45 killed an estimated 22,000 Dutch civilians. Arnhem, already devastated by the battle, was additionally emptied by a German order expelling all remaining residents.
• Arnhem was a fashion and design city before the war. The pre-war Arnhem had a strong identity as a prosperous residential and commercial city, with significant investment in parks, villas, and cultural institutions. The ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem now has one of the leading fashion design schools in the Netherlands.
• Sonsbeek is the oldest recurring outdoor sculpture exhibition in the world. The Sonsbeek park sculpture exhibition, first held in 1949, is the oldest continuous international outdoor sculpture show. Previous editions have featured work by Henry Moore, Claes Oldenburg, and Richard Serra.
• Burgers’ Zoo invented the “ecosystem zoo.” In the 1960s and 70s, Burgers’ pioneered the concept of presenting animals in complete ecosystems rather than individual enclosures — an approach that has since become the standard for serious zoological gardens worldwide. The 1988 tropical rainforest (the “Bush”) was the first of its kind in Europe.