Rijssen

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Rijssen is a town in the Dutch province of Overijssel. It is located in the municipality of Rijssen-Holten

Rijssen received city rights on the 5th of May, 1243. The original city rights bill was lost in a large fire that swept through the city, reducing the city hall and the keep to rubble, but in the year 2006 a copy was given to the newly instated city council. From the old city, only a church and a few houses dating from the 18th century are left. In the 19th and early 20th century, Rijssen had some textiles factories; they had to close down in the 1970s due to too strong Asian competition.

Rijssen has some shopping facilities in its centre. The small city has a fire brigade museum. South of Rijssen is a wooded area, with some camping sites. Unlike Holten, Rijssen is much influenced by orthodox Protestant religious groups; about 50% of its population is a member of such a conservative church.

It was a separate municipality until it merged with Holten in 2001. The name of the new municipality was "Rijssen", bit it was renamed to "Rijssen-Holten" in 2003.^[1]