Alphen aan den Rijn is a small city (population about 75000) in Zuid Holland, in The Netherlands.
It was created by the merging of the villages of Alfen , Aarlanderveen and Oudshoorn in 1918, and extended by adding Zwammerdam in 1964.
Long ago Alphen aan den Rijn was a Roman castellum named Albanianae (Alfen, Albanianae, sounds like a case of Grimm's Law), and archaeological findings indicate that the Romans already stationed legions there around 41-51 AD, during the reign of emperor Claudius (too bad Germanic invasions destroyed most of the Roman wealth during invasions around 240AD).