Jaap van 't Veen's photos with the keyword: tower

Oldehove was an artificial dwelling mound in the provice Frisia, which - together with Nijehove and Hoek - became the town of Leeuwarden in 1435. In the same year, Leeuwarden received city rights. In the late 9th century a Catholic church - dedicated to Saint Vitus - was built on that mound. Construction of the adjoining Late Gothic tower began in 1529, after the citizens of Leeuwarden demanded a tower taller than the one in the city of Groningen, the Martinitoren. The original plan included attaching a new church to the tower, which would replace the old Saint Vitus church, but this was never realised. Master builder Jacob van Aken was unlucky from the start, because the tower began to sink during construction. In an effort to compensate for the tilt, it was decided to continue to build perpendicular on top of the leaning bottom. Because of this the tower is also curved. Construction was subsequently halted in 1533 and has never been resumed. The tower never reached its intended height of about 120 meters. In 1595–1596, the then derelict church was demolished, but the tower remains. Although the Oldehove - as the tower is called - has never been used for special purposes, nevertheless it acquired a symbolic status. Inhabitants of Leeuwarden are proud of their Oldehove. “I feel rather homesick, when I cannot see the Oldehove”, is a well-known saying among the locals. The Oldehove is 39 meters high; the number of steps to reach the top is 184. The angle of leaning is 1,99 meters. The Oldehove has been used as timepiece, storage space and observation post; nowadays the tower is used by the Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden (Historical Center Leeuwarden).

The 'Martinitoren' is with its height of 97 metres the most well known and remarkable landmark of the city of Groningen. Originally the church (Martinikerk) had an indoor tower, but after it collapsed a new tower was built (between 1470 and 1550) west of the main church. The inhabitants of Groningen call it ‘d'Olle Grieze’ (Old Grey One) after the colour of the bricks. The 'Martinikerk' got its name from Sint Martinus or Sint Maarten (Saint Martin) and still some murals of him as well as others can be seen in the choir of the church. These beautiful paintings are dating back to the year of 1545. The ceiling has a warm blue colour. The nave of the church is really impressive and has one of the biggest baroque organs in northern Europe. The construction of this organ started already in 1480 and was finished in the 19th century.