After visiting Hierden and Borculo (see Part I dated 9/29/19), we continued our tour of historic villages and towns in the Netherlands.
Zutphen
The Berkel River that flows through the town of Borculo flows westward through the a nearby larger city called Zutphen, where it joins a larger river called the Ijssel. This larger city of 57,000 people is located about 15 miles west of Borculo. It is one of the oldest cities and at one time was one of the most influential cities in the Netherlands. It was known as a Hanseatic city belonging to one of the most powerful trade groups in Northern Europe for hundreds of years.
Zutphen received city rights in 1191. It was a walled (fortified) city with huge brick and stone walls surrounding it. Traces of the walls and the openings for the river as it flows through it are still visible today.
After visits to the Borculo and Zutphen areas, we headed north to the town of Staphorst, which has a population of 17,000 people.
Staphorst has a nice museum in town that traces the local history of the town its people. The museum reminds me of the Dekker Huis Museum in Zeeland, Michigan.
Our next destination was the province of Friesland located in the northernmost area of the Netherlands. Many people living today in Zeeland, Borculo and Blendon townships in West Michigan descended from immigrants who once lived the small towns in this province.
The capital of the province of Friesland is a large city named Leewarden. It has canals running through the city and a large Fries Museum which tells the history of the people and the area.
The tower was later stabilized, but construction was halted at 48 meters, even though it had been planned to reach 120 meters. The rest of the church building was never completed, and the tower stands alone.
Today climbing to the top of this old 128-foot tower is a popular tourist attraction. You can reach the observation deck at the top by climbing 183 steps on a narrow spiral staircase.
I was encouraged by my daughters to make this climb and made it to the top. I was rewarded with spectacular views of the beautiful city of Leewarden.
The immigrants from these areas were quite successful at draining the swamps they encountered in Borculo, Michigan and were able to make the land productive when they arrived here.
Unfortunately, the land they worked was not owned by the people who lived in the village; Instead, large tracts of land were owned by wealthy absentee owners and most of the profits went to other areas – not to those who lived in the towns.
Poverty was widespread and that is one reason so many people left for America.
Saint Nicholas Church (Hereformde) in Blija is very old. Parts of the lower church date to the thirteenth century, while the main structure dates to the sixteenth. The church was built on a terp, or manmade mound.
One of the earliest methods of protection from flooding began already in 500 B.C., when the people living in the lower areas began building survival mounds – or “terps” – to protect themselves from the surges of water from the North Sea.
About five miles from the town of Blija is a small village called Hegebeintum. Over the centuries the largest survival mound in the Netherlands was built here. It was 30 feet tall and covered 26 acres. We stopped at the Hegebeintum Visitor’s Center to learn about is long history.