1.
Dutch people
–
The Dutch, occasionally referred to as Netherlanders—a term that is cognate to the Dutch word for Dutch people, Nederlanders—are a Germanic ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a culture and speak the Dutch language. The high degree of urbanization characteristic of Dutch society was attained at an early date. During the Republic the first series of large scale Dutch migrations outside of Europe took place, despite the small size of the Netherlands, the Dutch left behind a legacy in excess of their mere numbers. The traditional art and culture of the Dutch encompasses various forms of music, dances, architectural styles and clothing. Internationally, Dutch painters such as Rembrandt, Vermeer and Van Gogh are held in high regard, the dominant religion of the Dutch is Christianity, although in modern times the majority is no longer religious. Significant percentages of the Dutch are adherents of humanism, agnosticism, atheism or individual spirituality, as with all ethnic groups the ethnogenesis of the Dutch has been a lengthy and complex process. The text below hence focuses on the history of the Dutch ethnic group, for Dutch national history, for Dutch colonial history, see the article on the Dutch Empire. Following the end of the period in the West around 500, with large federations settling the decaying Roman Empire. In the Low Countries, this began when the Franks, themselves a union of multiple smaller tribes. Eventually, in 358, the Salian Franks, one of the three main subdivisions among the Frankish alliance settled the areas Southern lands as foederati, Roman allies in charge of border defense. On a political level, the Frankish warlords abandoned tribalism and founded a number of kingdoms, however, the population make-up of the Frankish Empire, or even early Frankish kingdoms such as Neustria and Austrasia, was not dominated by Franks. Though the Frankish leaders controlled most of Western Europe, the Franks themselves were confined to the Northwestern part of the Empire, the current Dutch-French language border has remained virtually identical ever since, and could be seen as marking the furthest pale of gallicization among the Franks. The medieval cities of the Low Countries, which experienced major growth during the 11th and 12th century, were instrumental in breaking down the already relatively loose local form of feudalism, as they became increasingly powerful, they used their economical strength to influence the politics of their nobility. While the cities were of political importance, they also formed catalysts for medieval Dutch culture. The various city guilds as well as the necessity of water boards in the Dutch delta and it is also around this time, that ethnonyms such as Diets and Nederlands emerge. This process marked a new episode in the development of the Dutch ethnic group, as now political unity started to emerge, consolidating the strengthened cultural, despite their linguistic and cultural unity, and economic similarities, there was still little sense of political unity among the Dutch people. However, the centralist policies of Burgundy in the 14th and 15th centuries, at first violently opposed by the cities of the Low Countries, had a profound impact and changed this
2.
Cartography
–
Cartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively, the fundamental problems of traditional cartography are to, Set the maps agenda and select traits of the object to be mapped. This is the concern of map editing, traits may be physical, such as roads or land masses, or may be abstract, such as toponyms or political boundaries. Represent the terrain of the object on flat media. This is the concern of map projections, eliminate characteristics of the mapped object that are not relevant to the maps purpose. This is the concern of generalization, reduce the complexity of the characteristics that will be mapped. This is also the concern of generalization, orchestrate the elements of the map to best convey its message to its audience. This is the concern of map design, modern cartography constitutes many theoretical and practical foundations of geographic information systems. The earliest known map is a matter of debate, both because the term map isnt well-defined and because some artifacts that might be maps might actually be something else. A wall painting that might depict the ancient Anatolian city of Çatalhöyük has been dated to the late 7th millennium BCE, the oldest surviving world maps are from 9th century BCE Babylonia. One shows Babylon on the Euphrates, surrounded by Assyria, Urartu and several cities, all, in turn, another depicts Babylon as being north of the world center. The ancient Greeks and Romans created maps since Anaximander in the 6th century BCE, in the 2nd century AD, Ptolemy wrote his treatise on cartography, Geographia. This contained Ptolemys world map – the world known to Western society. As early as the 8th century, Arab scholars were translating the works of the Greek geographers into Arabic, in ancient China, geographical literature dates to the 5th century BCE. The oldest extant Chinese maps come from the State of Qin, dated back to the 4th century BCE, in the book of the Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao, published in 1092 by the Chinese scientist Su Song, a star map on the equidistant cylindrical projection. Early forms of cartography of India included depictions of the pole star and these charts may have been used for navigation. Mappa mundi are the Medieval European maps of the world, approximately 1,100 mappae mundi are known to have survived from the Middle Ages. Of these, some 900 are found illustrating manuscripts and the remainder exist as stand-alone documents, the Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi produced his medieval atlas Tabula Rogeriana in 1154
3.
Alkmaar
–
Alkmaar is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Alkmaar is well known for its cheese market. For tourists, it is a cultural destination. The earliest mention of the name Alkmaar is in a 10th-century document, as the village grew into a town, it was granted city rights in 1254. The oldest part of Alkmaar lies on an ancient sand bank that afforded protection from inundation during medieval times. Even so, it is only a couple of metres above the surrounding region, in 1573 the city underwent a siege by Spanish forces under the leadership of Don Fadrique, son of the Duke of Alva. Some of his dispatches fell into the hands of Don Fadrique, and, with the beginning to rise. It was a point in the Eighty Years War and gave rise to the expression Bij Alkmaar begint de victorie. The event is celebrated every year in Alkmaar on 8 October. In 1799, during the French revolutionary wars, an Anglo-Russian expeditionary force captured the city but was defeated in the Battle of Castricum. The French victory was commemorated on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris as Alkmaer, the North Holland Canal, opened in 1824, was dug through Alkmaar. In 1865 and 1867 the railways between Alkmaar and Den Helder and between Alkmaar and Haarlem were built respectively, in the second half of the 20th century, Alkmaar expanded quickly with development of new neighbourhoods. On 1 October 1972, the town of Oudorp and the portions of Koedijk. The municipality of Alkmaar consists of the cities, towns, villages and/or districts, Alkmaar, Koedijk, Overdie, Oudorp. These once separate villages are now all linked together by the suburban sprawl of buildings that arose between the late 1970s and early 1990s, during this time, the population of Alkmaar almost doubled. On 1 January 2015 the municipalities of Graft-De Rijp and Schermer were merged into Alkmaar, there are direct trains to Den Helder, Hoorn, Zaandam, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Ede, Arnhem, Nijmegen, s-Hertogenbosch, Eindhoven, Maastricht and Haarlem. For exact details see Alkmaar railway station, Alkmaar has two railway stations, Alkmaar Alkmaar Noord The waterway Noordhollandsch Kanaal, which opened in 1824, runs through Alkmaar. Alkmaar has many buildings that are still intact, most notably the tall tower of the Grote of Sint-Laurenskerk
4.
Dutch East India Company
–
It is often considered to be the worlds first truly transnational corporation and the first company in history to actually issue bonds and shares of stock to the general public. In other words, the VOC was officially the first publicly traded company of the world, the company was also considered by many to be the very first major and the greatest corporation in history. Statistically, the VOC eclipsed all of its rivals in international trade for almost 200 years of existence. Between 1602 and 1796 the VOC sent almost a million Europeans to work in the Asia trade on 4,785 ships, the VOC enjoyed huge profits from its spice monopoly through most of the 17th century. Having been set up in 1602, to profit from the Malukan spice trade, in 1619 the VOC established a capital in the city of Jayakarta. Over the next two centuries the Company acquired additional ports as trading bases and safeguarded their interests by taking over surrounding territory and it remained an important trading concern and paid an 18% annual dividend for almost 200 years. Around the world and especially in English-speaking countries, the VOC is widely known as the Dutch East India Company, the name ‘Dutch East India Company’ is used to make a distinction with the East India Company and other East Indian companies. The abbreviation VOC stands for Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie in Dutch, the VOC monogram was possibly the first globally-recognized corporate logo. The logo of the VOC consisted of a large capital V with an O on the left and it appeared on various corporate items, such as cannon and coins. The first letter of the hometown of the conducting the operation was placed on top. An Australian vintner has used the VOC logo since the late 20th century, the flag of the company was orange, white, and blue, with the company logo embroidered on it. Before the Dutch Revolt, Antwerp had played an important role as a centre in northern Europe. At the same time, the Portuguese trade system was unable to supply to satisfy growing demand. Demand for spices was relatively inelastic, and therefore each lag in the supply of pepper caused a rise in pepper prices. These three factors motivated Dutch merchants to enter the spice trade themselves. Further, a number of Dutchmen like Jan Huyghen van Linschoten and Cornelis de Houtman obtained first hand knowledge of the secret Portuguese trade routes and practices, thereby providing opportunity. The stage was set for Houtmans 1595 four-ship exploratory expedition to Banten, the main pepper port of West Java. Houtmans expedition then sailed east along the north coast of Java, losing twelve crew to a Javanese attack at Sidayu, half the crew were lost before the expedition made it back to the Netherlands the following year, but with enough spices to make a considerable profit
5.
National Library of Australia
–
In 2012–2013, the National Library collection comprised 6,496,772 items, and an additional 15,506 metres of manuscript material. In 1901, a Commonwealth Parliamentary Library was established to serve the newly formed Federal Parliament of Australia, from its inception the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library was driven to development of a truly national collection. The present library building was opened in 1968, the building was designed by the architectural firm of Bunning and Madden. The foyer is decorated in marble, with windows by Leonard French. In 2012–2013 the Library collection comprised 6,496,772 items, the Librarys collections of Australiana have developed into the nations single most important resource of materials recording the Australian cultural heritage. Australian writers, editors and illustrators are actively sought and well represented—whether published in Australia or overseas, approximately 92. 1% of the Librarys collection has been catalogued and is discoverable through the online catalogue. The Library has digitized over 174,000 items from its collection and, the Library is a world leader in digital preservation techniques, and maintains an Internet-accessible archive of selected Australian websites called the Pandora Archive. A core Australiana collection is that of John A. Ferguson, the Library has particular collection strengths in the performing arts, including dance. The Librarys considerable collections of general overseas and rare materials, as well as world-class Asian. The print collections are further supported by extensive microform holdings, the Library also maintains the National Reserve Braille Collection. The Library has acquired a number of important Western and Asian language scholarly collections from researchers, williams Collection The Asian Collections are searchable via the National Librarys catalogue. The National Library holds a collection of pictures and manuscripts. The manuscript collection contains about 26 million separate items, covering in excess of 10,492 meters of shelf space, the collection relates predominantly to Australia, but there are also important holdings relating to Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and the Pacific. The collection also holds a number of European and Asian manuscript collections or single items have received as part of formed book collections. Examples are the papers of Alfred Deakin, Sir John Latham, Sir Keith Murdoch, Sir Hans Heysen, Sir John Monash, Vance Palmer and Nettie Palmer, A. D. Hope, Manning Clark, David Williamson, W. M. The Library has also acquired the records of many national non-governmental organisations and they include the records of the Federal Secretariats of the Liberal party, the A. L. P, the Democrats, the R. S. L. Finally, the Library holds about 37,000 reels of microfilm of manuscripts and archival records, mostly acquired overseas and predominantly of Australian, the National Librarys Pictures collection focuses on Australian people, places and events, from European exploration of the South Pacific to contemporary events. Art works and photographs are acquired primarily for their informational value, media represented in the collection include photographs, drawings, watercolours, oils, lithographs, engravings, etchings and sculpture/busts
6.
Abel Tasman
–
Abel Janszoon Tasman was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company. In 1633 he sailed from Texel to Batavia in the service of the Dutch East India Company, Tasman took part in a voyage to Seram Island, the locals had sold spices to others than the Dutch. He had a escape from death, when in an incautious landing several of his companions were killed by people of Seram. In August 1637 he was back in Amsterdam, and the year he signed on for another ten years. On 25 March 1638 he tried to sell his property in the Jordaan, in 1639 he was second-in-command of an exploration expedition in the north Pacific under Matthijs Quast. The fleet included the ships Engel and Gracht and reached Fort Zeelandia and this expedition used two small ships, the Heemskerck and the Zeehaen. According to Marco Polo, Locach was a kingdom where gold was “so plentiful that no one who did not see it could believe it”, Beach was in fact a mistranscription of Locach. Locach was Marco Polo’s name for the southern Thai kingdom of Lavo, or Lop Buri, in Chinese, Lavo was pronounced “Lo-huk”, from which Marco Polo took his rendition of the name. In the German cursive script, “Locach” and “Boeach” look similar and they seem to have drawn on the map of the world published in Florence in 1489 by Henricus Martellus, in which provincia boëach appears as the southern neighbour of provincia ciamba. Book III of Marco Polo’s Il Milione described his journey by sea from China to India by way of Champa, Java, Locach, after a chapter describing the kingdom of Champa there follows a chapter describing Java. Locach, located between Champa and Sumatra, was likewise misplaced far to the south of Java, by some geographers on or near an extension of the Terra Australis. Gerard Mercator did just that on his 1541 globe, placing Beach provincia aurifera in the northernmost part of the Terra Australis in accordance with the faulty text of Marco Polo’s Travels. Following Mercator, Abraham Ortelius also showed BEACH and LVCACH in these locations on his map of 1571. Confirmation that land existed where the maps showed Beach to be had come from Dirk Hartog’s landing in October 1616 on its west coast, which he called Eendrachtsland after the name of his ship. In accordance with Visschers directions, Tasman sailed from Batavia on 14 August 1642 and arrived at Mauritius on 5 September 1642, the reason for this was the crew could be fed well on the island, there was plenty of fresh water and timber to repair the ships. Tasman got the assistance of the governor Adriaan van der Stel, because of the prevailing winds Mauritius was chosen as a turning point. After a four-week stay on the island both ships left on 8 October using the Roaring Forties to sail east as fast as possible. On 7 November snow and hail influenced the ships council to alter course to a more north-eastern direction, on 24 November 1642 Abel Tasman reached and sighted the west coast of Tasmania, north of Macquarie Harbour
7.
Nicolaus Copernicus
–
Copernicus was born and died in Royal Prussia, a region that had been part of the Kingdom of Poland since 1466. A polyglot and polymath, he obtained a doctorate in law and was also a mathematician, astronomer, physician, classics scholar, translator, governor, diplomat. In 1517 he derived a quantity theory of money – a key concept in economics –, Nicolaus Copernicus was born on 19 February 1473 in the city of Toruń, in the province of Royal Prussia, in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. His father was a merchant from Kraków and his mother was the daughter of a wealthy Toruń merchant, Nicolaus was the youngest of four children. His brother Andreas became an Augustinian canon at Frombork and his sister Barbara, named after her mother, became a Benedictine nun and, in her final years, prioress of a convent in Chełmno, she died after 1517. His sister Katharina married the businessman and Toruń city councilor Barthel Gertner and left five children, Copernicus fathers family can be traced to a village in Silesia near Nysa. The villages name has been variously spelled Kopernik, Copernik, Copernic, Kopernic, Coprirnik, in the 14th century, members of the family began moving to various other Silesian cities, to the Polish capital, Kraków, and to Toruń. The father, Mikołaj the Elder, likely the son of Jan, Nicolaus was named after his father, who appears in records for the first time as a well-to-do merchant who dealt in copper, selling it mostly in Danzig. He moved from Kraków to Toruń around 1458, Nicolaus father was actively engaged in the politics of the day and supported Poland and the cities against the Teutonic Order. In 1454 he mediated negotiations between Polands Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki and the Prussian cities for repayment of war loans, Copernicuss father married Barbara Watzenrode, the astronomers mother, between 1461 and 1464. The Modlibógs were a prominent Polish family who had been known in Polands history since 1271. The Watzenrode family, like the Kopernik family, had come from Silesia from near Świdnica and they soon became one of the wealthiest and most influential patrician families. Lucas Watzenrode the Elder, a merchant and in 1439–62 president of the judicial bench, was a decided opponent of the Teutonic Knights. In 1453 he was the delegate from Toruń at the Grudziądz conference that planned the uprising against them, Lucas Watzenrode the Younger, the astronomers maternal uncle and patron, was educated at the University of Kraków and at the universities of Cologne and Bologna. He was an opponent of the Teutonic Order, and its Grand Master once referred to him as the devil incarnate. In 1489 Watzenrode was elected Bishop of Warmia against the preference of King Casimir IV, as a result, Watzenrode quarreled with the king until Casimir IVs death three years later. Watzenrode was then able to close relations with three successive Polish monarchs, John I Albert, Alexander Jagiellon, and Sigismund I the Old. He was a friend and key advisor to each ruler, Watzenrode came to be considered the most powerful man in Warmia, and his wealth, connections and influence allowed him to secure Copernicus education and career as a canon at Frombork Cathedral
8.
City map
–
A city map is a large-scale thematic map of a city created to enable the fastest possible orientation in an urban space. The graphic representation of objects on a city map is usually greatly simplified. Depending upon its target group or market, a city map will include not only the citys transport network, the scale of a city map is usually between 1,10,000 and 1,25,000. Densely settled downtown areas will sometimes be drawn in a larger scale. In addition to true to scale maps, there are also maps with variable scale. Central to the information provided by a city map is the network, including its street names, along with buildings, parks. Streets and points of interest are also listed in a legend or register. Important places such as buildings, cultural institutions, attractions. The map may also be complemented by representations of public transport facilities, as early as the time of the Ancient Near East, clay tablets were being produced with scaled, graphical representations of cities. Excavations of the Sumerian city of Nippur brought to light a fragment of an approximately 3, 500-year-old city map, the clay tablet depicts the temple of Enlil, a city park, the city wall including its gates, along with a canal and the river Euphrates. The individual objects on this map were already labelled, in a Sumerian cuneiform, in manuscripts and early printed books of the Late Middle Ages, cities are often shown in profile, or viewed from an elevated standpoint. Nautical charts of that time sometimes depict partly stylized cityscapes drawn in pictogram form - for example in Cristoforo Buondelmontis Liber insularum archipelagi, from the year 1422. The Nuremberg Chronicle, which first appeared in 1493, is one of the most important collections of city views of the late Middle Ages, nevertheless, panoramas like this one, or the one in Bernhard von Breydenbachs Travelogue from 1483, had more narrative or representative functions. In the 16th century, the artists and scholars of the Renaissance had extensive knowledge of mathematical perspectives and this knowledge also affected the work of cartographers and the production of cityscapes. An early example of an exact and highly detailed work of this kind is the city map of Venice created by Jacopo de Barbari in around 1500. Jacopo de Barbaris map of Venice was already as large as 139 centimetres x 282 centimetres, from the middle of the 16th century, the copperplate process, originating in Antwerp, began to compete with the woodcut, and allowed far more refined and detailed illustrations. One of the first city pocket atlases, and the first pocket atlas of London, was Collins Illustrated Atlas of London published in 1854 and drawn, cartography Street map Media related to Historical city maps at Wikimedia Commons City maps
9.
Amsterdam
–
Amsterdam is the capital and most populous municipality of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its status as the capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the government, which is The Hague. Amsterdam has a population of 851,373 within the city proper,1,351,587 in the urban area, the city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country. The metropolitan area comprises much of the part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe. Amsterdams name derives from Amstelredamme, indicative of the citys origin around a dam in the river Amstel, during that time, the city was the leading centre for finance and diamonds. In the 19th and 20th centuries the city expanded, and many new neighborhoods and suburbs were planned, the 17th-century canals of Amsterdam and the 19–20th century Defence Line of Amsterdam are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. As the commercial capital of the Netherlands and one of the top financial centres in Europe, Amsterdam is considered a world city by the Globalization. The city is also the capital of the Netherlands. Many large Dutch institutions have their headquarters there, and seven of the worlds 500 largest companies, including Philips and ING, are based in the city. In 2012, Amsterdam was ranked the second best city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit and 12th globally on quality of living for environment, the city was ranked 3rd in innovation by Australian innovation agency 2thinknow in their Innovation Cities Index 2009. The Amsterdam seaport to this day remains the second in the country, famous Amsterdam residents include the diarist Anne Frank, artists Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh, and philosopher Baruch Spinoza. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in the world, is located in the city center. After the floods of 1170 and 1173, locals near the river Amstel built a bridge over the river, the earliest recorded use of that name is in a document dated October 27,1275, which exempted inhabitants of the village from paying bridge tolls to Count Floris V. This allowed the inhabitants of the village of Aemstelredamme to travel freely through the County of Holland, paying no tolls at bridges, locks, the certificate describes the inhabitants as homines manentes apud Amestelledamme. By 1327, the name had developed into Aemsterdam, Amsterdam is much younger than Dutch cities such as Nijmegen, Rotterdam, and Utrecht. In October 2008, historical geographer Chris de Bont suggested that the land around Amsterdam was being reclaimed as early as the late 10th century. This does not necessarily mean there was already a settlement then, since reclamation of land may not have been for farming—it may have been for peat. Amsterdam was granted city rights in either 1300 or 1306, from the 14th century on, Amsterdam flourished, largely from trade with the Hanseatic League
10.
Scotland
–
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
11.
Westerkerk
–
Westerkerk is a Reformed church within Dutch Protestant church in central Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It is next to Amsterdams Jordaan district, on the bank of the Prinsengracht canal, the Westerkerk was built between 1620 and 1631 in Renaissance style, built according to designs by architect Hendrick de Keyser. He is buried in the church he designed earlier, the Zuiderkerk, the building of the Westerkerk was finished and completed by his son Pieter de Keyser and inaugurated on June 8,1631. The church has a length of 58 meters and a width of 29 meters, the high nave is flanked by the two lower aisles. The three-aisled basilica has a plan with two transepts of equal dimensions. As a result, the plan for church was given the form of two Greek crosses connected with each other. Several older churches in Amsterdam, such as Oude Kerk and Nieuwe Kerk, were built before the Reformation and were converted to Protestantism during the Reformation in 1578. The Westerkerk was one of the first purposely built Protestant churches, the Noorderkerk and Zuiderkerk preceded the Westerkerk. According to Calvinism, playing instrumental music inside the church was still considered profane in those days and it took many years of consultation until an organ was finally allowed. At first there was talk of moving the small organ used in the Nieuwe- or the Oudekerk. In 1681 the Westerkerk decided on commissioning organ builder Roelof Barentszn Duyschot for the construction of a new organ, before it was finished he died and in 1686 the new organ was finished by his son Johannes Duyschot. Later in 1727 it was enlarged with an extra third keyboard by Christiaan Vater who learned his profession at Arp Schnitger, many alterations were done on the organ in the course of time. In the 19th century in 1895 even a rebuild of the inside of the organ took place by Daniel Gerard Steenkuyl, lucky enough many of the old pipes and the wind chests were re used. In 1939, the keyboard was equipped with electric tracker action and it was not what this organ was intended to be in sound and action. The organ was almost doubled in size, but was too big for its case. So between 1989 and 1992 the organ was reconstructed by Flentrop organ builders in Zaandam to its former mechanical action again more or less like Christiaan Vater made it in 1727, today the bovenwerk is still almost complete with stops by Vater. An exception is the baarpyp, which is made by Steenkuyl in 1896, the front pipes were made in 1842 by Hermanus Knipscheer. In the situation after 1992, less than half of the pipes are historic and re-used in the hoofdwerk, the keyboards and stop triggers beside it of this just mechanical baroque organ are located in the main case behind this rugwerk
12.
Gouda, South Holland
–
Gouda is a municipality and city in the province of South Holland, the Netherlands. The city is famous for its Gouda cheese, stroopwafels, many grachten, smoking pipes, goudas array of historic churches and other buildings makes it a very popular day trip destination. The area, originally marshland, developed over the course of two centuries, by 1225, a canal was linked to the Gouwe and its estuary was transformed into a harbour. City rights were granted in 1272, around the year 1100, the area where Gouda now is located was swampy and covered with a peat forest, crossed by small creeks such as the Gouwe. Along the shores of this stream near the current market and city hall, in 1139, the name Gouda is first mentioned in a statement from the Bishop of Utrecht. In the 13th century, the Gouwe was connected to the Oude Rijn by means of a canal, Castle Gouda was built to protect this harbour. This shipping route was used for trade between Flanders and France with Holland and the Baltic Sea, in 1272, Floris V, Count of Holland, granted city rights to Gouda, which by then had become an important location. City-canals or grachten were dug and served as transport ways through the town, great fires in 1361 and 1438 destroyed the city. In 1572, the city was occupied by Les Gueux who also committed arson and destruction, in 1577 the demolition of Castle Gouda began. In 1551 was founded the oldest still functioning inn De Zalm, located on Markt 34, near the historic Waag building. In 1574,1625,1636, and 1673, Gouda suffered from plague epidemics, of which the last one was the most severe,2995 persons died. In the last quarter of the 16th century, Gouda had serious economic problems and it recovered in the first half of the 17th century and even prospered between 1665 and 1672. But its economy collapsed again when war broke out in 1672, after 1700, Gouda enjoyed a period of progress and prosperity until 1730. Then another recession followed, resulting in a period of decline that lasted well into the 19th century. Gouda was one of the poorest cities in the country during that period, starting in 1830, demolition of the city walls began. The last city gate was torn down in 1854, only from the second half of the 19th century onward did Gouda start to profit from an improved economic condition. New companies, such as Stearine Kaarsenfabriek and Machinale Garenspinnerij, acted as the impetus to its economy, in 1855, the railway Gouda-Utrecht began to operate. In the beginning of the 20th century, large-scale development began, first the new neighbourhoods Korte Akkeren, Kort Haarlem and Kadebuurt were built, followed by Oosterwei, Bloemendaal, and Goverwelle after World War II
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
