Dordrecht: A 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 walking 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 just one single night. You'll also discover the politicians, merchants, and artists who left their mark on this remarkably well-preserved city.

The tour starts at Scheffersplein, a square that's not what it seems to be, beside a statue of painter Ary Scheffer – whose rejected commission for the work went to a sculptor who later created the Statue of Liberty. From there, you'll walk the Voorstraat, the lowest sea dike in the Netherlands, where metal hooks on house walls still hold the planks that keep floodwater at bay. You'll pass through the Donkere Steiger, the narrowest house in Dordrecht, built over one of the city's 27 historic jetties in 1632.

The route continues through the Arend Maartenshof, a 17th-century almshouse built by a notorious loan shark hoping to save his soul, and along the Wijnstraat, once home to 70 wine cellars and still the street with the highest concentration of listed monuments in Dordrecht. You'll walk the harbourfront quays, pass the Groothoofdspoort city gate – where Charles V, Napoleon, and William of Orange all entered the city – and hear how the Saint Elizabeth flood of 1421 wiped out Dordrecht's fortune overnight. The tour ends at the statue of Johan and Cornelis de Witt, two brothers born here who rose to lead the Dutch Republic before meeting a brutal end in one of history's darker episodes.

On this two-hour tour, you'll have a chance to:

• Enter the Hof van Nederland, the courtyard where the first act of Dutch independence took place in 1572
• Discover the narrowest street of Dordrecht, home to the office of the Sack Carriers' Guild
• Spot surviving examples of the Dordrecht façade, a brick style abolished overnight when the guilds were dissolved in 1798
• See the Mint of Holland, where Dordrecht held the exclusive right to mint Holland's coins for nearly 450 years
• Walk around the Grote Kerk, a Gothic church whose 65-metre tower has been leaning more than two metres since it was built
• Walk the cast-iron Nieuwbrug bridge, ordered from a catalogue in England in 1851

This tour is full of details that reward a closer look – so feel free to take your time.