Tour Dronten Lelystad 53 km.

The plans for the municipality of Dronten were made from the beginning of the 1950s. The first concrete plans started in 1958, construction started in 1960 and on April 26, 1962 the first residents settled there. From the beginning there was discussion whether Dronten should become a village or a city. Initially, a maximum of 15,000 inhabitants was assumed, later plans foresaw growth to 30,000 inhabitants. In 2023, the municipality of Dronten presented further growth plans to a total of 60,000 inhabitants in the municipality. The town of Dronten will be expanded on the south, east and north sides with new neighborhoods. This growth must be realized in 2050.

The first plans assumed ten cores, just like in the Noordoostpolder : small cores around a central main town. Due to changing views on transport (increasing use of mopeds and cars) and the experience that the cores in the Noordoostpolder had proven to be too small, this number was reduced. In various steps of the planning phase, the number of cores was reduced to three: Dronten, Biddinghuizen and Swifterbant . When construction started in 1960, the towns of Larsen and Zeewolde were still included in the planning. These two towns were also ultimately not realised. In 1965, it was finally decided to build only three cores. The name Zeewolde was later used for another town in Southern Flevoland. During the construction of Dronten, several wrecks of aircraft from the Second World War were found; the Vliegersmonument was erected to commemorate the victims.

Lelystad is named after Cornelis Lely , the spiritual father of the Zuiderzee Works . However, the name was not fixed from the start. When it became clear after the Second World War that the polders to be drained would receive a population and care centre, it was suggested here and there in the media that the place would be called Flevostad. Not everyone was happy with this. At the end of 1950, an article appeared in which Kornelis Jansma and Sjoerd Groenman , chairman and secretary respectively of the Society 'Flevo' (a research fund and think tank around the Zuiderzee Works) rejected this name on historical grounds and proposed to give the honour to Lely. They called it self-evident 'that should be named after him the most important place in the new area, which is mainly added to the Netherlands through his efforts' and their conclusion was that 'Lelystad' would be the correct name. A First Chamber committee then pleaded with Minister Wemmers for this name. He responded favourably, but indicated that a definitive determination in due course would require the judgment of the Zuiderzee Council ^[1]