Jomoud's Fotothing

My 2008 trip to Holland

HINDELOOPEN.
Hindeloopen, or "Hylpen as the residents call it, received town-rights in 1525.
The heydays for the town were in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. There was a lively trade with Norway, the countries round the Baltic and Russia. From the king of Sweden the town received many prerogatives for the navigation on the Baltic. Hindeloopen has no seaport. The "fluiten", -merchant ships in days of yore, had a protected anchorage before the coast, the so called "Goede reede". In the heydays there were about 80 of such vessels sailing with Hindeloopen as home port.
In the seventeenth century there were intensive contacts with Amsterdam. The seagoing vessels were built on the borders of the river Zaan. Amsterdam was the trade center and it were their merchants, who sent vessels with Hindeloopen skippers and boats swain on the mercantile voyages. When icepack obstructed the navigation around the Nord (Den Helder) the Hindeloopen's vessels remained in Amsterdam.
It were golden times and much of the profit was spent in Amsterdam on precious tissues and objects, which were supplied through the United Indian Company (VOC). In these days, the rich town became the centre of interior art. A totally unique painting style was developing and many articles of use were provided with fine and ingenious carving.
Currently, some commander’s houses remind of this time of glory. Many of the houses have a little anchor hanging on the facades, which in the old days was a sign, that the skipper could still accept freight. At the waterline behind some houses you find a little house with a remarkable architecture, the so called "Likhuizen". These were the houses where the skippers’ wives were living with the children in the summer, to be a little bit more comfortable, when the skipper was at sea. After the French occupation, when most vessels were annexed, the prosperity of Hindeloopen was waning step by step. There was a revival, through fishery , but when the Zuiderzee was closed by a dam, the fishery was also lost.
At this moment there is only one IJsselmeer fisher from this town. In the museum "Hidde Nijland Stichting" one can become acquainted with the rich maritime history and living culture of Hindeloopen, which manifests itself in the rich painted furniture and in the fine old costumes.