Bennekom is a village and parish in the Netherlands, which is part of the Municipality of Ede in the south-west of the Veluwe district of the Province of Gelderland.

It adjoins the town of Wageningen on the Lower-Rhine to the south, and Ede to the north, Veenendaal to the west and Renkum to the east.

[1] The low flat marshy area between the village and the Grift, called the Binnenveld, represents the path of a glacier in the last Ice Age.

It forms part of the Gelder Valley, which runs from the Lower Rhine between Wageningen and Rhenen (Province of Utrecht) and the IJsselmeer near Amersfoort.

The ancient farmsteads in the Binnenveld and the hamlet of the Kraats stand on higher areas, the remains of dunes blown there at the end of the Ice Age.

These less fertile soils are covered with birch and pine forest, heathland, and some arable land suitable for less demanding crops such as oats and maize.

Wageningen has the largest inland port in the Netherlands, providing supplies that pass through Bennekom for the farming industry in the Veluwe.

The village also has good access to the railway between Utrecht and Arnhem (both 15–20 minutes away) with the station Ede-Wageningen at the southern edge of Ede.

Until the 1960s, a steam tramway from the railway station ran to Wageningen through the centre of Bennekom, carrying both passengers and goods.

South-east of the village in the forested area is a post-war development, Wageningen-Hoog, with large villas and extensive grounds.

South of the village, the green belt separating Bennekom from the built-up area of Wageningen is only a few hundred metres wide.

The legend of St Alexander to which the church of Bennekom was consecrated is based on remains from the Cemetery of the Jordani on the Salarian Way in Rome.

In AD 851, Waltbert, a grandson of the first Christian King of Saxony carried his remains from Rome to the Abbey of Wildeshausen south of Bremen.

In 2006, an archaeological survey in the grounds of the former Bennekom hospital just south of the A12 motorway brought to light the remains of a farmstead and granary dating from the Early Iron Age about 800–500 BC.

The Netherlands Institute for Varietal Testing of Arable Crops was built in 1952 on the site of Nergena in the style of the country house that succeeded to the castle.

During Napoleonic times (1811–1817), Bennekom became an independent municipality with its office in the back of the church, which remained partitioned off, later as a library, until the restoration of 2006.

With the railway station of Ede-Wageningen (1845) and the steam tram from there to Bennekom and Wageningen (1883), the village became a tourist resort with several hotels and many guest houses.

On 19 June, the militia was called to the village to keep from the church the followers of Eisma, who then held his service in the open air.

For the following days, the village was in the front line between those troops and Dutch forces on the higher land west of the Grift between Rhenen and Veenendaal.

Several Allied aircraft were shot down in the parish and a German transport plane with about 10 crew crashed at Hoekelum on 4 December 1943.

On 21 October, the village was evacuated and became Sperrgebiet, ‘forbidden territory’ except for slaves and forced labour working on the German defences.

On 23 November 1944, a munitions depot in Bennekom's windmill blew up, killing about 100 German troops and destroying properties in the area.

[5] The empty village was ‘liberated’ by Canadian and British troops on 17 April 1945 but remained front line until the surrender of German forces in the Provinces of Utrecht, and North and South Holland on 6 May 1945.

It will rehouse welfare services: the hospice, Berinchem, Halderhof and Breukelderhof old-people's homes There will also be owner-occupied and rented flats.