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

The Grote of Jacobijnerkerk was originally a chapel of the Dominican or Jacobin monks; a monastery which was founded in 1245. The church itself was built between 1275 and 1310 and therefore it is the oldest building in Leeuwarden. In 1392 the building was badly damaged by a fire, but two years later restored. Early 16th century an aisle was added and later the church was extended with a bay. The gothic building was converted into a protestant church during the reformation and lost her altars and many of the decorations. The church is still used by the protestant community of Leeuwarden for their services The Grote of Jacobijnerkerk is one of the three churches in the Netherlands with a royal crypt. Between 1588 and 1765 sixteen members of the Frisian branch of the Nassau family - the ancestors of the current Dutch royal family - were entombed in this church: six stadtholders of Friesland, their spouses and children. Main image: Oranjepoortje (Orange gate) In 1663 a portal in classical style was added to the choir, especially for members of the Nassau family. The current Oranjepoortje still consists of an outer and inner gate, of which only the former has doors. The triangular pediment was given a new Orange Tree in 1948.

The Belvedère is a watchtower in the forest area of Oranjewoud. Andreas Willem Tjaarda - owner of Logement Heidewoud, nowadays Golden Tulip Hotel Tjaarda - had a wooden watchtower built on the Berg van Brongerga , a small hill almost ten meters high, in 1917. The area was and is known as Tjaarda’s Bosch (Tjaarda´s Forest). In 1924 this wooden construction was replaced by a reinforced concrete tower due to dilapidation. The octagonal watchtower has nine stairs of twelve steps and a height of eighteen meters. When the height of the hill is added, the eye level of a person on the tower is almost thirty meters above ground level. This tower also fell into disrepair, but instead of being demolished, it was restored after seventy years. The observation tower is a special feature: it is one of the oldest concrete structures with such large dimensions. The Belvedère is a Dutch national monument.

Huize Oranjestein (Country House Oranjestein) was built on the site where, around the 18th century, the residence of the estate manager of Landgoed Oranjewoud (Country Estate Oranjewoud) stood. The estate belonged to the Van Nassau-Dietz family. Oranjestein was bought in 1820 by the merchant Pieter Cats. The property was thoroughly rebuilt by the new owner and was completed two years later. More alterations followed; a final thorough renovation took place in 2008/2009, whereby the house retained its original 19th century atmosphere. The Oranjestein estate is still privately owned. Access to the estate/park is restricted to a number of Sundays in the summer. Since 2003, the Oranjestein estate is a national Dutch monument.

A klokkenstoel (bell tower/belfry) as a separate structure probably owes its origin to the fact that certain areas in Friesland were too poor or the communities too small, to build a church. Sometimes a church was built without a tower and the bell was placed in a separate bell tower. It also happened that when a church building or church tower had fallen into ruin, a bell tower was built. Usually, the bell tower is located in a village or hamlet. Almost all freestanding bell towers can be found in the province of Friesland and therefore the bell tower can be called a typical Frisian construction. Brongerga is such a hamlet (nearby Oranjewoud and Heerenveen). In 1315 it already had a little church and a drawing from 1722 shows that there was still a church, but it must have been demolished shortly afterwards. Nowadays, only the belfry remains in the churchyard, where an old tombstone mentions the year 1711. The bell tower contains a very old bell from the 13th century, which came from a belfry in another Frisian village. The current bell tower was renovated in 2006.

Most probably the first state (residential manor) was built in the year of 1599. On the same spot the present stately house was built in 1647/48 by Johannes Sytzes Crack, grietman (a kind of mayor) of Aengwirden’. Architect was Willem de Keyser, son of the famous Dutch architect Hendrick de Keyser. The face of the building therefore has some similarity with the houses along the canals of Amsterdam. The building is surrounded by a moat. The bridge over the water dates - as specified on a bricked stone - from 1775. The port for the bridge comes away from the town of Horn and mentions the year 1819. Up to 1833 the house was the residence of the Crack family, when it became a public building, used as a court-house. Crackstate was a very notorious place during World War II, when it was used for torturing and executing people. From 1952 Crackstate is part of the town hall of the municipality of Heerenveen. It is located nearby the town centre.

The Grote Kerk (Great Church) of Hindeloopen must be very old, as it was already destroyed in 1570 during the Eighty Years' War. The church – dedicated to Saint Gertrude -was rebuilt around 1590. The church tower dates from this period and was completed in 1593. In 1632 this church was replaced by a larger building and twentysix years later it was extended southwards into a two-aisled hall church. The extension was demolished in 1892 due to dilapidation. The spire was lost in 1701 after a lightning strike during a service. In 1724, the current spire was placed on top of the tower. On top of the octagonal spire is a dome with a wind vane in the shape of a sailing ship. In 1685 bells were placed in the tower, which were made by the bell foundry of Petrus Overney in Leeuwarden. During World War II the bells were stolen. One of the bells was recovered after the liberation. The entrance portal on the south side was made in 1658 by Claes Lykles. In the pediment above the coat of arms of Hindeloopen and the year 1658. During the renovation of 1892, this entrance was moved to the south side of the church. The Grote Kerk is recognized as a national monument.

The Grote of Sint-Gertrudiskerk (Great or Saint Gertrudis Church) is a huge late Gothic hall church, which is quite unusual for this part of the Netherlands. The late church was built at the end of the 15th century (1480) by adding a choir to its single-nave predecessor. Shortly afterwards a transept was also built. Around 1515, work began on replacing the old one-aisled cruciform with the present three-aisled hall church. Due to a war, work was only restarted in 1523. The nave was never completed and in 1615 was closed by a wooden wall - which remained until the restoration of 1939/1951 - leaving the still unfinished tower standing at some distance in front of the church. In 1613 a crown with an onion-shaped dome was added to the tower. The Grote of Sint-Gertrudiskerk I still used for services by the Protestant church of Workum. .

Sloten originated in the 13th century as a settlement near a small, stone-fortified house - called a stins , which is typical for Friesland. The house was owned by the family Van Harinxma thoe Slooten and stood at the crossing of the trading road from Bentheim to Stavoren. Sloten was first mentioned having city rights in a charter of 30 August 1426. In 1523 the little town was the last Frisian fortress to fall into the hands of the heirs of the Counts of Holland. . Sloten also held a key position in the Eighty Years' War. A Spanish plot to conquer the city by hiding men in a beer ship failed. Sloten was located on an important waterway between the city of Sneek and the (former) Zuiderzee and also to the Hanseatic cities along the river IJssel. In Sloten this waterway crossed the road from Germany to Stavoren, a large and important trading city in the middle ages. At this crossing, one could charge users a toll and exercise strategic control. Nowadays Sloten is no longer of strategic importance, but is popular with water sports enthusiasts and day-trippers. The city has retained almost all of the original ramparts and the entirety of the original structure. The fortress was designed and built by the well-known Dutch fortress builder, Menno van Coehoorn. Because of its onion shape Sloten is called Sipelstêd (onion town). Sloten has less than 800 inhabitants and is the smallest of the eleven cities in Friesland. The Frisian name for Sloten is Sleat.

A map of Sloten - one of the Eleven Frisian towns - from 1523 shows a windmill in its present location for the first time. Windmill De Kaai was built in 1755 and is the successor to the earlier standerd mill that stood on this spot. For many years it was known as De Korenmolen (The Corn Mill). It was given its ‘new’ name in 2006, derived from its position by the Lemster Poort - one of the two water gates in Sloten; where it stands on a bastion of the city wall. De Kaai is a smock mill on a brick base with a thatched smock and cap. Its stage is 3.40 meters above ground level. The mill is winded by tailpole and winch. The sails have a span of 18.10 meters. De Kaai still grinds wheat into flour in the traditional and authentic manner. On Saturdays, the mill is open for viewing and flour sales. The mill is listed as a Dutch national heritage site.

The Oudemirdumerklif is a nature reserve in Gaasterland , a hilly region in the southwest of the Dutch province of Friesland . Gaasterland derives its name from the word gaast , which refers to the sandy heights formed here during the last two ice ages The Oudemirdumerklif - one of the three cliffs in this region - is a remnant of a glacier tongue from the “Saale ice age”, between 200.000 and about 120.000 years ago. During this ice age, moraines of boulder clay, a tough loamy mass with scattered larger stones and gravel, were formed. The cliffs in Gaasterland were created because erosion took place where the waves of the former Zuiderzee reached these boulder mounds. Wave erosion swept away boulder clay at the bottom of the cliff. Because of the constant crumbling under the influence of the sea, the slopes remained bare before the Zuiderzee was closed off in 1932. After the Zuiderzee became IJsselmeer , the water level remained constant. The steep sides became more slanted due to crumbling and erosion by water. Due to the saturation of the water, the cliff - with a height of about 6 meters - and the beach became overgrown with trees, bushes and plants. Because of the salt which remained in the soil, salt-loving plants continue to grow there to this day. Because of its scientific value, the Oudemirdumerklif was one of the first acquisitions of Natuurmonumenten (a Dutch society for nature conservation) in the 1920s. You can reach the Oudemirdumerklif via the Minne Minnespad .There you walk between so-called garden walls: walls of stacked grass sod meant to keep the cattle in the meadow. These walls are unique in the world, as there are only two other locations in the Netherlands.

Search and find the benches !! Elfbergen is with 175 hectares the largest forest in Gaasterland. It is one of the forests that Esq Van Swinderen has laid out in the 19th century. The forest has coniferous and broad-leaved types of wood of all ages. In 1925 it came into possession of the municipality of Gaasterland, who sold it in 1976 to Staatsbosbeheer (a Dutch government organisation for forestry and the management of nature reserves). During the crisis years of the 20th century, a labour camp for young unemployed people called Werkkamp Elfbergen was established on this site. The large pond in Elfbergen with a wooden bridge was one of the works these young people carried out between 1935 and 1937. It took a total of 9,000 man-days to excavate the pond. The pond is 110 meters long and 45 meters wide, with a narrowing in the middle over which a bridge has been built.

The first mention of a church in Lemmer dates back to the 13th century. The foundation stone of the current Tsjerke oan it Dok (Church at the Harbour) was laid more than 300 years ago. According to the numerical wall anchors on the tower, the church was built in 1716. In 1759 the church was enlarged with a transept on the north side. The tower of he curch is half-embedded. The people of Lemmer call the tower of this church the Lemster toer (the Lemster tower>. If they can see it from a distance, they know they are (almost) home again. The original tower clock from 1598 was removed by order of the German occupiers during the World War II and has not been returned. After the liberation, the Tsjerke oan it Dok received a new clock. A memorial stone was unveiled after the war in the facade above the tower entrance, in memory of the approximately 50 war victims from Lemmer. Unfortunately, the church – as so often in the Netherlands – was not open to visitors, so I was not able to admire the interior.

The protestant Sint-Agathakerk - before the refomation dedicated to St. Agatha - is dating back to the year of 1090. The church was originally built as a Romanesque church and was later rebuilt in a Gothic style. The detached tower, built around 1140 as a Romanesque defence tower, of which the spire was replaced in 1888 by a tented roof, has walls more than one meter thick, tuff on the outside and bricks on the inside. The tower has one clock from the 14th century; most probably the oldest clock in the Netherlands (another one is from 1949). In the 14th century the church was lengthened with a choir and two Gothic entrances were added to the nave. Most of the building is of tuff, but the Gothic former northern entrance is of brick. The shape of the choir changed in 1599, when the apse was replaced by the current east wall. In 1717 bigger windows were added to the nave and the east wall. The Sint-Agathakerk is listed as a national monument and is rated with a very high historical value.

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).

Gasthuizen have been a form of housing for poor people for several centuries. Gasthuizen can be found in most cities in the Netherlands, and were generally built with community in mind and by the church. In the city centre of Leeuwarden one of the prettiest is the Sint Anthony Gasthuis . The Sint Anthony Gasthuis - also called Sint Anthoon - started in the Middle Ages. The oldest mention of the guest house dates from 1425, ten years before the settlements of Nijehove, Oldehove and Hoek were merged into the city of Leeuwarden. The current guesthouse is officially called the Nieuw Sint Anthony Gasthuis and the buildings dates from 1864. This section consists of four neo-classical pavilions with characteristic facades bearing the arms and names of the noble families who were associated with the guest house as benefactors in early history, such as Burmania, Minnema, Wiarda and Auckama. Since the last renovation was completed in 1990, the guest house has focused solely on housing for the elderly. Elderly people from the age of sixty can rent a flat in the Sint Anthony Gasthuis .

The Ir. D.F. Woudagemaal is the largest, still functioning steam pumping station in the world. The pumping station was opened in 1920 by Queen Wilhelmina. Its job was pumping excess water from the provice of Friesland into the Zuiderzee (later IJsselmeer ). In 1966 the pumping station received reinforcement of the electric Hoogland gemaal in Stavoren. During the winters of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, large parts of Friesland were flooded. To counter this flooding, it was decided to build a steam pumping station at Lemmer in 1913. The pumping station is named after Ir. Dirk Frederik Wouda, who served as Chief Engineer at the time of the Provincial Public Works and was responsible for the style and performance of the building. In the huge machine hall there are four steam engines with four powerful flywheels, which are still operational. In 1967, after running on coal for 47 years, the boilers were converted to run on heavy fuel oil.The steam engines and flywheels drive eight centrifugal pumps that move about 6 million m³ of water per day. The Woudagemaal is brought under steam at least twice a year by its owner Wetterskip Fryslân . The largest steam pumping station in the world still plays a crucial role in the Frisian water authority to this day. When there is a lot of rain or during a persistent storm, the Woudagemaal can be used to help keep the Frisian water at the same level. The remarkable brick building - inspired by the Amsterdam School style - features clean lines and an austere appearance and has characteristics of Berlage's rationalism, such as the steel rafters, the use of stone, oak, sophisticated colours and decorative edges. Since 1998, the Woudagemaal has been one of the ten UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Netherlands. Nowadays it is open for visitors.

The province of Friesland in the Netherlands had till about 1850 more than 2.400 of windmills. There are only 124 left; most of them go back to the years between 1850 and 1900. Modern technology and machines has made them redundant. One of the most beautiful located polder draining mills is ‘De Rietvink’ on the banks of the ‘Jonker (or Helema) Vaart’ and at the edge of a nature area and former peat extraction area the ‘Rottige Meente’. The ‘Rietvink’ is an octagonal smock mill and was built in 1855. It served until 1964 as a polder draining mill, when it became a holiday home. The mill was restored in 2009/2010 and since June of that year ‘De Rietvink’ can be used again. The mill is open for visitors and has a lovely teagarden. Next to the mill lies an old lock to the river ‘De Scheene’.

Dekema State: a country estate in the 14th century originally built as a fortified dwelling. Rebuilt many times till its last restoration in 2004.