Photos from Our World

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

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

The West of Friesland

Western Fryslân is a land of wide vistas, meadows criscrossed by small canals draining the surplus water and larger ones that double as convenient roads for the many boating enthusiasts that live here or come as visitors. There are quiet and picturesque 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; this was before dikes were constructed.

From the village of Zurich, 8 km south of Harlingen, the Afsluitdijk (Enclosure Dam) runs 32 km to Den Oever in North Holland; work was started in 1927 and completed on 28 May 1932, turning the Zuiderzee, an inland sea, into a lake, the IJsselmeer and providing a fast route from Friesland to Amsterdam. A monument is erected on the site where the final bucket of boulder clay closed the last tidal trench. There is a lunchroom and a viewing platform for the view. This is also the border between the two provinces.

Bolsward (Boalsert in Frisian) is a city of almost 10,000 and used to be a port in the Middle Ages, on the Middelzee, a body of water that connected it to the North Sea; this ceased when the Middelzee was reclaimed. It had received city rights in 1455 and was even a member of the Hanseatic League. A good example of past glory is its Stadhuis, City Hall, the finest Renaissance building in Friesland; it was built between 1614 and 1617.

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