The name Overijssel literally means "across the IJssel river". 
No surprise then that Zwolle, the capital of the province, sits right across the IJssel. 

Overijssel may be mostly covered by grasslands but also proudly hosts two interesting National Parks.
Created by extensive peat-mining, the Weerribben-Wieden, is a large bog around picturesque Giethoorn.
The Sallandse Heuvelrug is a moraine, created in the Saale glaciation, and is known for its large heathlands.

By 8000 BC, people already hunted and fished in the IJssel-delta near Zwolle and they never left. Roman scribes called the locals Tubantes, a name that lives on today in the local newspaper Tubantia.

In the 8th century Lebuinus, an English monk, was sent to the region to convert the hostile Saxons to Christianity. He is thought to have died in Deventer around 775.

After the St Lucia flood forcefully created the Zuiderzee in 1287, cities on the IJssel and in the IJssel delta seized the opportunity for maritime trade with the Nordic and Baltic region. Hasselt, Kampen, Zwolle and Deventer joined the Hanseatic League and got very rich, still visible in the great buildings in the city centers.

In the 19th and 20th century Enschede was the center of a major textile industry but after 1960 production moved to low labor countries in the South-East Asia.. 
Around the same time the Technical University Twente was founded here, which certainly helped to make Enschede the regional center for innovation and technology. 

website736003.jpg website736002.gif website736001.gif
Giethoorn
Hasselt
Zwolle
Kampen
Deventer