Kampen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈkɑmpə(n)] ⓘ) is a city and municipality in the province of Overijssel, Netherlands.

Kampen has one of the best preserved old town centres of the Netherlands, including remains of the ancient city wall (of which three gates are still standing) and numerous churches.

As a result of its convenient location on the busy trade route between the Zuiderzee and the Rhine, Kampen quickly developed from simple settlements into a prosperous trading town, to become one of the most powerful and leading cities of northwestern Europe.

In the 14th century, Kampen exchanged with the bishop of Utrecht, Jan van Arkel, the Mastenbroek polder against the right to increase the IJsseldelta.

For a long time Kampen did not want to sign a union and make economic and political concessions to other cities, as was usual in the Hanseatic League.

Kampen was originally more oriented toward the Baltic trade and commerce with the hinterland of the Rhine, and therefore in 1441 formally joined the Hanseatic League.

On 11 August 1572 Kampen was conquered from the Spaniards by Willem van den Bergh, a brother of William of Orange.

In 1578, the city changed ownership again after the Siege of Kampen, led by George van Lalaing.

In the 19th century, a new strategy was put in place to counter this problem: some watercourses were dammed to allow for more water at a higher speed through one or two main routes.

These murals, which include Art Nouveau influences, were made by local artists and are now referred to as "frescoes of the middle class".

As a result of current municipal policy, wherever these murals are discovered under old plaster, they are restored to their former glory.

A number of better or lesser known people with a certain connection with Kampen is honoured with a commemorative stone bearing their name and a single-sentence characterization of their personality or achievements, incorporated into the pavement of the Oude Raadhuisplein (formerly Koeplein), the square in between the old town hall, the former Post Office and Nieuwe Toren.

Every third Saturday of August, a comics event, called the Kamper Stripspektakel, is organized with over 100 booths.

There is street theater, where pieces of famous musicals are played, and mid-nineteenth-century characters are walking around the city.