Leeuwarden (Stadsfries and Stellingwerfs: Liwwadden or Leewadden;
Frisian: Ljouwert Bildts: Luwt) is a city in the north of the
Netherlands and the capital of the province of Friesland, the
capital of the municipality of Leeuwarden with the same name and one
of the oldest cities in the Northern Netherlands.
Important
sectors in the city are financial and business services, government
and the non-profit sector. The city is the largest of the Frisian
eleven cities. In 2020 the city had 93,485 inhabitants. The town
also includes the hamlet of Vierhuis and a part of the hamlet of
Groote Bontekoe. Various other places have also been included in
Leeuwarden, such as the former village of Huizum and the former
hamlet of Schilkampen. In the agglomeration, the city has 151,812
inhabitants (as of 2020).
Leeuwarden's history dates back to Roman
times. At that time people already lived on the spot where the
Oldehove now stands. Leeuwarden originated on mounds that were
raised on an inlet of the Middelzee that silted up and was reclaimed
in the 13th century. The rivers Ee, Vliet and Potmarge flowed into
the sea at these mounds.
The name Leeuwarden first appears in
a deed of donation from the 8th century. In this document from the
Abbey of Fulda one speaks of villa Lintarwde.
The inhabitants
of the mound were engaged in agriculture, fishing and shipping.
Leeuwarden was conveniently located by the sea and maintained trade
contacts with other trading places such as Lübeck and with the
Baltic Sea countries. Three settlements arose on the mounds:
Oldehove, Nijehove and Hoek.
Oldehove, which was
traditionally a courtyard of Corvey Abbey in Germany, already had a
church dedicated to St. Vitus in the mid-twelfth century. In deeds
from the fourteenth century, the St. Vitus Church of Oldehove is
mentioned under the name Liiewardensis.
The oldest parish
church in Leeuwarden was located in Oldehove. That is why
Oud-Leeuwarden was also called Nijehove, because of the newer
church. Oud-Leeuwarden, or Nijehove, was already referred to as a
city in a German trade deed in 1285.
Hoek was the smallest of
these settlements and was partly owned by the noble Cammingha
family. They had a stins here and had also founded a church there.
Six documents have been preserved about the creation of the city of
Leeuwarden, two of which concern the association of Leeuwarden that
took place on January 21, 1435. Nine years earlier there was already
an official decision to merge. Before Oud-Leeuwarden was merged with
Oldehove and Hoek, it already had city canals.
Between 1200
and 1300 the Middelzee silted up and trade declined due to the lack
of a port. The emphasis of trade was then placed more on the nearby
region. In 1392, the surrounding grietenijen (municipalities)
granted the magistrate of the city high jurisdiction.
In 1435, the same year that Oldehove, Nijehove and Hoek
were merged into one city, Leeuwarden, Leeuwarden received city
rights.
The fifteenth century was dominated by the struggle
between Schieringers and Vetkopers. In general, the cities and the
countryside rallied behind the Schieringers. Leeuwarden was the
stronghold of the Vetkopers. The party struggle led to the
construction of new defenses. The internally divided Friesland was
subdued around 1500 by Albrecht van Saksen.
In 1523 the
prominent rebel leader and pirate Wijerd Jelckama and the last
surviving members of the Arumer Zwarte Hoop (also known as
Gelderland Frisians) were beheaded in Leeuwarden. The death of
Jelckama, who was the nephew of Grote Pier, marked an end in a long
period of Frisian uprisings since 1515.
After the subjugation
by Albrecht van Saksen, Leeuwarden became the seat of the Hof van
Friesland, which dealt with administration and justice. In 1571 this
college was given its own accommodation, the Chancellery. At the
same time ecclesiastical authority was also established in
Leeuwarden. The St. Vitus Church became the seat of the Dean and the
most important church in Friesland. All lords and stadholders were
inaugurated in this church. In 1559 Leeuwarden was elevated to the
seat of the bishop of the newly founded diocese of Leeuwarden.
Cunerus Petri, the only bishop, was briefly imprisoned during the
Calvinist takeover of power and then left Friesland for good. The
St. Vitus Church was demolished in the years 1595 and 1596 due to
extensive dilapidation.
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a golden age for Leeuwarden. Leeuwarden gained prestige because for centuries it became the residence of the Nassaus who became stadtholder of the northern provinces from 1584, until they left the city in 1747. The Nassaus lived in the Stadhouderlijk Hof with their court, now the building functions as a hotel. In these centuries the city also flourished. The number of inhabitants increased from 5,000 around the year 1500 to 16,000 in 1650. This was partly because Leeuwarden in the Republic was relatively easy to reach. At the time there were ferry services to Groningen, via the Dokkumer Ee and the Stroobosser Trekvaart and Amsterdam via Harlingen across the Zuiderzee. With places that were closer, much trade was done by means of narrow sailing ships. At the time, tow barges that were pulled ashore by horses left from Leeuwarden to Harlingen, Bolsward, Sneek and Dokkum four times a day.
The Golden Age was also a time when the nobility
arose in Leeuwarden. The Eewal, Grote Kerkstraat, Nieuwestad,
Tweebaksmarkt and the Weaze were the most elegant streets in
Leeuwarden at the time. Rich noble families such as Van Martena, Van
Aylva, Van Camstra and Van Burmania lived here. Leeuwarden was then
one of the ten most important cities in the Netherlands. Beautiful
buildings such as the Chancellery (where justice was held), the
Stadhouderlijk Hof and the Waag (as the center of trade) bear
witness to this.
The prosperous Leeuwarden had to be
protected against enemies. To this end, the city was provided with a
moat and walls all around. These defenses were later, when they
became redundant, demolished or turned into a park. Except for those
of the Nieuwestad, Voorstreek, the Gardens, the Weaze and the
northern part of the Schavernek, the canals in the city center have
all been filled in. The canals that have been filled in include
those of Eewal, Tweebaksmarkt, Nieuweburen, Grote Kerkstraat, the
Vliet and De Oude Herengracht (Zaailand). In the nineteenth century
the first neighborhoods arose outside the city canal.
Jews
moved to Leeuwarden from the first half of the 17th century. The
number of Jews in Leeuwarden grew to about 1,200 in the 19th
century. A Jewish congregation was officially established in 1754
and the first synagogue was built in 1755. Later a new building was
built on the same site, Synagogue Leeuwarden. In 1980 a third
synagogue was inaugurated because the second turned out to be too
large for the small Jewish community that still exists in
Leeuwarden.
In the nineteenth
century, the city's connections were improved. In 1827 the empire
started building roads from Leeuwarden to Overijssel and to
Groningen, Harlingen, Sneek and Lemmer. In addition, the old barge
canals were deepened and improved. In 1863 the rail connection
between Leeuwarden and Harlingen was built. Soon after, the lines
with Zwolle, Groningen and Sneek were established.
Part of
the municipality of Leeuwarderadeel was annexed in 1944, resulting
in an additional 16,000 inhabitants in Leeuwarden. In 1951, on
Kneppelfreed (Club Friday), Leeuwarden was the scene of the 'battle
of the Zaailand', a historical benchmark in the Frisian language
struggle.