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Friesland

 
Dictionary: Fries·land   (frēz'lənd, -lănd', frēs'-) pronunciation
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A region of northern Europe on the North Sea between the Scheldt and Weser rivers. The Frisians, a Germanic people, were conquered by the Franks in the eighth century. A portion of the area is now a province, also called Friesland, of the northern Netherlands.

 

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Columbia Encyclopedia: Friesland
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Friesland (frēz'lənd, Du. frēs'länt) or Frisia (frĭzh'ə), province (1994 pop. 607,000), c.1,325 sq mi (3,430 sq km), N Netherlands. Leeuwarden is the capital. The province includes several of the West Frisian Islands along the North Sea coast and borders on the IJsselmeer in the west. A principal dairying and cattle-raising region, Friesland has fertile land near the coast and sandy heath and fenland in the interior. It is drained by numerous canals and small rivers and has many picturesque lakes. The Frisians, a Germanic people who lived in formerly isolated marshlands, were conquered by the Franks in the 8th cent. Their language, which differs considerably from Dutch, is still spoken by a sizable part of the population. In the early Middle Ages, Friesland extended from the Scheldt River in the south to the Weser in the east. Later it was partly conquered by the counts of Holland. When Holland passed (1433) to the house of Burgundy, the authority of the Burgundian dukes was not recognized by the independence-minded Frisians. In 1498, Emperor Maximilian I bestowed all Friesland on Duke Albert of Saxony. Albert was unable to establish his authority, and in 1515 his son, for a payment, restored Friesland to Maximilian. Maximilian's grandson, Emperor Charles V, reduced the province by force in 1523. Friesland joined (1579) in the Union of Utrecht against Spanish domination, but it continued to appoint its own stadtholders until 1748, when Prince William IV of Orange became the sole and hereditary stadtholder of all the United Provinces of the Netherlands. A nature preserve for seals has been established on the island of Terschelling.

Wikipedia: Friesland
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This article is about the Dutch province. For other uses, see Friesland (disambiguation).
Provincie Friesland (nl)
Provinsje Fryslân (fy)
Province of Friesland
Frisian flag.svg Coat of arms of Friesland
Flag Coat of arms
Map: Province of Friesland in the Netherlands South Holland North Holland Friesland Groningen Drenthe Flevoland Overijssel Gelderland Utrecht Limburg North Brabant Zeeland
About this image
Capital Leeuwarden
Queen's Commissioner John Jorritsma
Religion (1999) Protestant 39%
Roman Catholic 8%
Area
 • Land
 • Water		  
3,349 km² (3rd)
2,392 km²
Population (2006)
 • Total
 • Density
642,230 (8th)
192/km² (11th)
Anthem De âlde Friezen
ISO NL-FY
Official website www.fryslan.nl

Friesland (439 Friesland.ogg pronunciation (help·info), West Frisian: Fryslân, Dutch: Friesland) is a province in the north of the Netherlands.

Up 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' is still commonly used, being the Dutch translation of the official name.

Friesland has 643,000 inhabitants (2005) and its capital is Leeuwarden (Ljouwert), with 91,817 inhabitants, in the center of the province.

Contents

Culture

Friesland distinguishes itself from the other eleven provinces through having its own language, West Frisian, which is also spoken in a minor 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 Friesian cattle and the well known black Friesian horse originated here. Tourism is another important source of income, the greatest touristic destinations are the lakes in the south west of the province, and the islands in the Wadden Sea in the north. Technology companies such as Asset Control have also set up base in Friesland.

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 kilometers ice skating tour. In the warmer months, many Frisians practice wadlopen, the traditional art of wading across designated sections of the Wadden Sea at low tide. 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. 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

The Elfstedentocht passes all eleven cities of Fryslân

Major towns

Frisian cattle

Municipalities

Amsterdam Almelo Almere Amersfoort Arnhem Assen Breda Den Haag Delft Delfzijl Den Bosch Den Helder Dordrecht Enchede Haarlem Hilversum Maastricht Middelburg Zwolle Lelystad Leiden Katwijk Nijmegen Eindhoven Vlissingen Rotterdam Leeuwarden Heerenveen Groningen (city) Emmen Almelo Apeldoorn Alkmaar Zaanstad Tilburg Venlo Heerlen Drenthe Flevoland Friesland Gelderland Groningen Limburg North Brabant North Holland Overijssel South Holland Utrecht Zeeland
Map of the Netherlands, linking to the province articles; red dots mark provincial capitals and black dots other notable cities or towns.

See also

References

External links

v • d • e
Flag of the Netherlands.svg    Provinces of the Netherlands
Provinces of the Netherlands.svg
v • d • e
Frisian flag.svg    Municipalities of Friesland (Fryslân)
Friesland position.svg
See also: Netherlands · Provinces · Municipalities

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Friesland".  Read more

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