Photos from Our World

• FryslÂn - Friesland
• Leeuwarden - Ljouwert
• Franeker - Frjentsjer
• Harlingen - Harns
• Central Friesland
• Western Friesland

• South Western Friesland
• Wadden Islands
• Winter in Friesland
• Traditions and Folkore
• Visserijdagen
• Frisian Flags

The North of Friesland

The north of Fryslân, roughly north of the Frisian capital of Leeuwarden and the old cities of Harlingen and Franeker is a relatively lightly populated land, a land of meadows, windmills, quiet villages and old churches, some on top of "terpen", the artificial hills dating from the Middle Ages, when the Frisians constructed these to escape to when the land was flooded during storms, and the coast of the Waddenzee, between the mainland and the Frisian islands.

One of the villages that seems to intrigue many because of its name, is Sexbierum, about 12 km north of Harlingen. Its name, however, is derived from Sixtebeeren, mentioned in 1322 and is thought to be derived from a combination of the name of Pope Sixtus II and the Old Frisian word for house, bere. The Frisian name is now Seisbierrum.

The largest town here is Dokkum, an old fortified town that was built on two "terpen". It is near this town that in the year 754 Boniface, an Anglosaxon abbot from Exeter (Wessex, England) who had been sent to convert the heathen Frisians, was killed by a band of Frisian bandits, who then got drunk, started killing each other and found that instead of booty there were only books and manuscripts to be found, that they tried to destroy. On the spot where this took place, Christian Frisians later built a terp with a memorial church on top of that.

Not far from Dokkum is the village of Holwerd with nearby the mooring of the ferry to the island of Ameland and northeast of this, near the village of Lauwersoog (actually in Groningen province) is the point where the ferry to Skiermûntseach leaves from.

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