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Friesland
Fryslân
—  Province  —
Frisian flag
Flag
Friesland wapen
Coat of arms
Anthem: De âlde Friezen
Friesland in the Netherlands
Location of Friesland in the Netherlands
Country Netherlands
Capital Leeuwarden
Government
 • Queen's Commissioner John Jorritsma
Area
 • Land 3,349 km2 (1,293 sq mi)
 • Water 2,392 km2 (924 sq mi)
Area rank 3rd
Population (2010)
 • Land 646,305
 • Rank 8th
 • Density 190/km2 (500/sq mi)
 • Density rank 11th
ISO 3166 code NL-FY
Religion (2005) Protestant 30%
Roman Catholic 6%
Muslim 2%
Website www.fryslan.nl

Friesland (About this sound pronunciation , West Frisian: Fryslân, Dutch: Friesland; Dutch pronunciation: [ˈfris.lɑnt]) is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the ancient, larger region of Frisia.

Until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian Fryslân. Nevertheless, Friesland remains in common usage, being the Dutch (and English) name for the province.

Friesland has 646,000 inhabitants (2010) and its capital is Leeuwarden (West Frisian: Ljouwert), with 91,817 inhabitants, in the centre of the province.


Culture[]

Fryslân distinguishes itself from the other eleven provinces by having its own language, West Frisian, which is also spoken in a small adjacent part of the province of Groningen, to the east. Closely related languages, East Frisian ("Seeltersk", which is different from "East Frisian (Ostfriesisch)", a collection of Low German dialects of East Frisia) and North Frisian, are spoken in the Saterland and in North Friesland areas in Germany, respectively.

Friesland is mainly an agricultural province. The famous black and white Frisian cattle and the well known black Frisian horse originated here. Tourism is another important source of income, with the principal tourist destinations including the lakes in the southwest of the province, and the islands in the Wadden Sea to the north.

Another interesting feature is the presence of many windmills. There are 195 windmills in the province of Friesland, from a total of about 1200 in the entire country.

Cities[]

2012-P02-FR-basis

Map of Friesland (2012)

Holstein cows large

Frisian cattle

Friesian Stallion

Friesian horse

The ancient cities of Friesland are shown below:

Dutch West Frisian Charter granted
Leeuwarden Ljouwert 1285; renewed in 1435
Sneek Snits 1456
IJlst Drylts 1268
Sloten Sleat 1426
Stavoren Starum 1118
Hindeloopen Hylpen 1285
Workum Warkum 1399
Bolsward Boalsert 1425
Harlingen Harns 1234
Franeker Frjentsjer 1374
Dokkum Dokkum 1298

Major towns[]

10 largest towns by population

Towns (Frisian name) Population
1 Leeuwarden (Ljouwert) 96,578
2 Drachten 44,598
3 Sneek (Snits) 33,401
4 Heerenveen (It Hearrenfean) 28,497
5 Harlingen (Harns) 15,729
6 Dokkum 13,145
7 Franeker (Frjentsjer) 12,995
8 Joure (De Jouwer) 12,902
9 Wolvega (Wolvegea) 12,738
10 Lemmer (De Lemmer) 10,220

Source: Fryslân.nl (1 December 2009), mun. and CBS

Municipalities[]

  • Achtkarspelen
  • Ameland
  • Boarnsterhim
  • Dantumadiel
  • Dongeradeel
  • Ferwerderadiel
  • Franekeradeel
  • Gaasterlân-Sleat
  • Harlingen


Demography[]

Historical population Friesland[1][2]
Year Population
1714 129,243
1748 135,195
1796 161,513
1811 175,366
1830 204,909
1840 227,859
1850 243,191
1860 269,701
1870 300,863
1880 329,877
1890 335,558
1900 340,263
Year Population
1910 363,625
1920 385,362
1930 402,051
1940 424,462
1950 465,267
1960 478,206
1970 521,820
1982 592,314
1990 599,151
1999 621,222
2010 646,305

Bevolkingsontwikkeling Friesland

The years 1880-1900 show slower population growth. Due to a farm crisis 20,000 Frisians emigrated to the United States.[3]

Climate[]

Climate data for Leeuwarden (1971–2000).
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 12.6
(54.7)
14.4
(57.9)
20.4
(68.7)
26.0
(78.8)
28.7
(83.7)
32.5
(90.5)
31.4
(88.5)
32.8
(91.0)
29.1
(84.4)
23.8
(74.8)
16.4
(61.5)
14.2
(57.6)
32.8
(91.0)
Average high °C (°F) 4.6
(40.3)
5.1
(41.2)
8.3
(46.9)
11.4
(52.5)
15.9
(60.6)
18.1
(64.6)
20.3
(68.5)
20.8
(69.4)
17.6
(63.7)
13.4
(56.1)
8.7
(47.7)
5.8
(42.4)
12.5
(54.5)
Daily mean °C (°F) 2.4
(36.3)
2.5
(36.5)
5.0
(41.0)
7.4
(45.3)
11.6
(52.9)
14.3
(57.7)
16.4
(61.5)
16.6
(61.9)
13.9
(57.0)
10.1
(50.2)
6.1
(43.0)
3.6
(38.5)
9.2
(48.6)
Average low °C (°F) −0.2
(31.6)
−0.4
(31.3)
1.6
(34.9)
3.2
(37.8)
6.9
(44.4)
9.8
(49.6)
12.2
(54.0)
12.0
(53.6)
9.8
(49.6)
6.6
(43.9)
3.3
(37.9)
1.1
(34.0)
5.5
(41.9)
Record low °C (°F) −19.9
(−3.8)
−16.3
(2.7)
−16.3
(2.7)
−5.9
(21.4)
−1.7
(28.9)
1.3
(34.3)
5.7
(42.3)
5.4
(41.7)
2.0
(35.6)
−6
(21)
−14.2
(6.4)
−19.2
(−2.6)
−19.9
(−3.8)
Precipitation mm (inches) 66
(2.6)
42
(1.65)
59
(2.32)
38
(1.5)
51
(2.01)
69
(2.72)
64
(2.52)
60
(2.36)
82
(3.23)
78
(3.07)
84
(3.31)
73
(2.87)
767
(30.2)
Source: Knmi.nl[4]

Sports[]

Elfstedentocht

The Elfstedentocht passes all eleven cities of Fryslân

The province is famous for its speed skaters, with mass participation in cross-country ice skating when weather conditions permit. When winters are cold enough to allow the freshwater canals to freeze hard, the province holds its traditional Elfstedentocht (Eleven cities tour), a 200 kilometer ice skating tour. A traditional sport is Frisian handball. Another Frisian practice is fierljeppen, a sport with some similarities to pole vaulting. A jump consists of an intense sprint to the pole (polsstok), jumping and grabbing it, then climbing to the top while trying to control the pole's forward and lateral movements over a body of water and finishing with a graceful landing on a sand bed opposite to the starting point. Because of all the diverse skills required in fierljeppen, fierljeppers are considered to be very complete athletes with superbly developed strength and coordination. In the warmer months, many Frisians practice wadlopen, the traditional art of wading across designated sections of the Wadden Sea at low tide.

There are currently two top level football clubs playing in Friesland: SC Heerenveen (home stadium Abe Lenstra Stadion) and SC Cambuur from Leeuwarden (home stadium Cambuur Stadion).

Anthropometry[]

Since the late Middle Ages, Friesland was renowned for the exceptional height of its inhabitants, who were deemed among the tallest groups of Indo-Europeans. Even early Renaissance poet Dante Alighieri refers to the height of Frieslanders in his Divine Comedy when, in the canticle about Hell, he talks about the magnitude of an infernal demon by stating that "not even three tall Frieslanders, were they set one upon the other, would have matched his height".[5]

See also[]

DrentheFlevolandFrieslandGelderlandGroningenLimburgNorth BrabantNorth HollandOverijsselSouth HollandUtrechtZeelandNetherlands map large
About this image

Map of the Netherlands, linking to the province pages; the red dots mark the capitals of the provinces and the black dots other notable cities or towns

  • Frisian Solar Challenge
  • Frisians
  • West Frisian language

References[]

  1. ^ Historical population Friesland 1714 - 2000,Tresoar.
  2. ^ CBS Population 2010
  3. ^ Emigration to the United States (Dutch)
  4. ^ "Knmi.nl" (in Dutch). http://www.knmi.nl/. Retrieved 18 March 2011. 
  5. ^ Alighieri, Dante. Divine Comedy, "Inferno", Canto 31, line 64, in The Portable Dante, ed. Paolo Milano, trans. Laurence Binyon, Penguin, 1975 ISBN 0-14-015032-3

External links[]


This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at Friesland. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.
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