The capital of Friesland: Leeuwarden

Introduction to Frisian culture

Learning the Frisian language involves getting to know the Frisian culture. Every week in this closing section, we will highlight a few aspects of Frisian language and culture that we think you might find interesting. This week we will focus on Friesland and its capital: Leeuwarden.

As you know, this introductory course is offered to you by the University of Groningen. It is the only university in the Netherlands where you can study minorities and multilingualism and where you can specialise in Frisian. The study programmes relevant to Friesland are partially located in Friesland, in Leeuwarden.

Leeuwarden is a culturally rich city with a wide assortment of museums and other cultural institutions. The art, history and culture of Friesland is captured in the Fries Museum. Anyone interested in history can drop by the ‘Leeuwarden Historical Center’, and visit the permanent exhibition ‘The Story of Leeuwarden’. Next to the historical center, you can find the library Tresoar, which can be seen as the archive of Friesland. While wandering through Leeuwarden, you will walk over poëtry-stones: more than 30 poems can be found within the canals of the inner city.

Leeuwarden has been chosen as the European Capital of Culture of 2018. In 2018 the city of Leeuwarden and the province of Friesland showed what makes them special, by means of an artistic programme. Hundreds of events were organised.

If you want to know more about visiting Fryslân or Leeuwarden you can follow this link.

We hope to see you again next week!