drenthe

Drenthe

provincie, northeastern Netherlands. It extends westward from the German border, between the provinces of Groningen and Friesland (north and northwest) and Overijssel (south). Drained by many shallow streams and short canals, it has an area of 1,025 square miles (2,654 square km). Its capital is Assen. More than 50 megalithic funerary monuments (hunebedden, "huns' graves") attest to prehistoric settlement of the area. It was part of the bishopric of Utrecht from 1046 to 1522 but passed to the Holy Roman emperor Charles V in 1536 and was incorporated in the Habsburg dominions. It took part in the Dutch revolt against Spain but was not made a province until 1796.

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