The written history of Eindhoven started in 1232, when Duke Henry I, Duke of Brabant granted City rights in the Netherlands to ''Endehoven'', then a small town right on the confluence of the Dommel and Gender streams. The city's name translates literally as "End Yards", reflecting its position at the southern end of Woensel. At the time of granting of its royal charter, Eindhoven had approximately 170 houses enclosed by a Defensive wall. Just outside of the city walls stood a small castle. The city was also granted the right to organize a weekly market and the farmers in nearby villages were obliged to come to Eindhoven to sell their produce. Another factor in its establishment was its location on the trade route from the Holland region to Liège.Around 1388 the city's fortifications were strengthened further. And between 1413 and 1420, a new castle was built within the city walls. In 1486, Eindhoven was plundered and burned by troops from Gelderland. The reconstruction was finished in 1502, with a stronger rampart and a new castle. However, in 1543 Eindhoven falls again: its defense works were neglected due to poverty.A big fire in 1554 destroyed 75% of the houses but by 1560 these had been rebuilt with the help of William I of Orange. During the Dutch Revolt, Eindhoven changed hands between the Dutch and the Spanish several times, until finally in 1583 it was captured by Spanish troops and its city walls demolished. Eindhoven did not become part of the Netherlands until 1629.The industrial revolution of the Nineteenth Century provided a major growth impulse. Canals, roads and railroads were constructed. Eindhoven was connected to the major Zuid-Willemsvaart canal through the Eindhovensch Kanaal branch in 1843 and was connected by rail to Tilburg, 's-Hertogenbosch, Venlo and Belgium between 1866 and 1870. Industrial activities initially centred around tobacco and textile and boomed with the rise of lighting and electronics giant Philips, which was founded as a light bulb manufacturing company in Eindhoven in 1891.The explosive growth of industry in the region and the subsequent housing needs of workers called for radical changes in administration, as the City of Eindhoven was still confined to its Middle Ages moat city limits. In 1920, the five neighbouring municipalities of Woensel (to the north), Tongelre (northeast and east), Stratum (southeast), Gestel en Blaarthem (southwest) and Strijp (west), which already bore the brunt of the housing needs and related problems, were incorporated into the new Groot-Eindhoven ("Greater Eindhoven") municipality. The prefix "Groot-" was later dropped.The early twentieth Century saw additions in technical industry with the advent of car and truck manufacturing company DAF Trucks(Van Doorne's Automobiel Fabriek) (DAF) and the subsequent shift towards electronics and engineering, with the traditional tobacco and textile industries waning and finally disappearing in the Seventies.Large-scale air raids in World War II (including the preliminary bombing during Operation Market Garden to aid the paratroopers in securing the bridges in and around the town) destroyed large parts of the city. The reconstruction that followed left very little historical remains and the post-war reconstruction period saw drastic renovation plans in highrise style, some of which were implemented. At the time, there was little regard for historical Cultural heritage; in the Sixties, a new city hall was built and its neo-gothic predecessor (1867) demolished to make way for a planned arterial road that never materialised.The Seventies, Eighties and Nineties saw large-scale housing developments in the districts of Woensel-Zuid and Woensel-Noord, making Eindhoven the fifth-largest city in the Netherlands.Population (2006): 209,286. Population metropolitan area Eindhoven (2006): 440,000 http://wikitravel.org/en/Eindhoven