Zutphen

Zutphen chains its greatest treasure to the wall. In the chapter house of the Walburgiskerk survives the Librije of 1564 — one of the last chained libraries on earth still in its original room: some seven hundred volumes fastened to their reading desks by the original chains, sunlight on vellum, the sixteenth century's information security intact. It suits the town, for Zutphen is the "tower city" of the Hanse — a skyline of spires over the IJssel confirmed the league's prosperity, the Wijnhuistoren carrying a carillon by the Hemony brothers, the founders of the tuned carillon art whose bells set the standard for the Low Countries' singing towers.

The old streets deliver what the towers promise: courtyards, merchant houses, city gates, and a bookish, antiquarian temper — English readers may recall that Sir Philip Sidney fell at the battle of Zutphen in 1586, passing his water bottle to a dying soldier with the words every anthology keeps. The stage is documented in the concert record: the Hanzehof, the town's theatre and congress hall, where touring orchestras, opera and drama serve the Achterhoek's audiences, the modern annexe to a medieval city of readers. Chained books, tuned bells, a knight's last courtesy: Zutphen keeps civilisation under lock, key and carillon.