THE NETHERLANDS : LEEUWARDEN
The administrative and
cultural capital in Friesland is Leeuwarden,
and is located between the Frisian Lakes and the shores of the Wadden
Sea. Formally an old market community,
the settlement is known today for its two fabulous museums and the
largest Veemarkt (cattle market) in Europe. Chartered in 1435,
Leeuwarden was the center of a goldworking and
silverworking industry from the 16th to the 18th century. There are
still buildings and monuments that date from the 16th and 17th
cent., notably the huge brick Oldehove Tower, home to the
Frisian Museum.
The centre dates from the Middle Ages and is built on three artificial
hills, to which people used to flee during periods of high tides. The
City is built on a strategic spot on the shoreline, where the confluence
of three rivers meets the sea.
In the 16th century, Leeuwarden became a centre for agricultural trade
and fortification canals (moats) were established. For hygienic reasons
some of these canals had to be filled and covered at the end of the 19th
century.
Leeuwarden is the town where
Mata Hari was born, the renowned dancer
and World War I spy. The city is a pleasant place with several
interesting monuments and museums.
Set apart from the rest of the country in terms of language, culture
and traditions, Friesland today is a remote wilderness of an area, home
to the Frisian Islands, which are dotted off the Northwest coastline.
Most areas offer an exhausting breadth of outdoor activities and sports.
History of Leeuwarden
Leeuwarden arose from a number of three
mounds at the shore of the Middelzee. Before the year 1000 there were
already people living here. From the tenth century these agricultural
inhabitants started trading as well. The position at the Middelzee was
ideal for this purpose. The contacts reached into Russia. In this way
Leeuwarden developed urban characteristics. But in the thirteenth
century the Middelzee silted up and from that moment on the trading
activities were concentrated in the area.
Leeuwarden obtained town-rights in the year 1435 and became capital city
of the region in 1504, when the central government and jurisdiction
settled down here. Beside that, Leeuwarden became the residence of the
Frisian stadtholders.In these centuries the town was flourishing. The
number of inhabitants rose spectacularly: from five thousand in the year
1500 to sixteen thousand in 1650. Then Leeuwarden belonged to the ten
most important cities in the Netherlands. Several monumental buildings
are still testifying to that period. Such as the Chancellery, where
justice was settled, the Court of the Stadtholders, the Weighing-house,
and the leaning tower the Oldehove.
The prosperity of Leeuwarden needed to be protected against enemies.
Therefore a canal was dug round about the town and ramparts were thrown
up. Later, when these defences became needless, they were broken down or
reformed to a public garden. Inside the inner town almost all the canals
are still intact. In the nineteenth century Leeuwarden expanded outside
the town-canal.
As a result of the major social changes in the second half of the
nineteenth century, Leeuwarden became important as a town with central
tasks in the area. Whereas at national level the importance of
Leeuwarden decreased extremely. Nowadays the situation is still the
same. Leeuwarden, having over 85.000 inhabitants, is the urban centre
with a large number of provisions, within the comparatively sparsely
populated province of Friesland.
