Leeuwarden's Towngates
(by: Meindert Schroor)
The canal running around Leeuwarden's centre was excavated largely between 1481 and 1494. It was also during this period that three land gates (a gate being a poort in Dutch) were built: the Wirdumerpoort, the Onze Lieve Vrouwepoort and the Hoeksterpoort. These were accompanied by three water gates: next to the Hoeksterpoort, the Lievevrouwewaterpoort (also known as the Schavernekspijp) and the Tuinsterpoort or Vlietsterpoort. It was not until 1631 that a water gate was constructed near the Wirdumerpoort.
During the Eighty Years War with Spain the town was provided with new fortifications (built from 1582-1623) that included seven bastions and two ravelins - fortifications protruding out into the moat. Built near the land gates were outer gates or guardhouses.
By the early nineteenth century Leeuwarden had lost its function as a fortified town. Once this happened, its defences were gradually dismantled. The gates were demolished from 1818-1841. Bulwarks on the west and north could be reshaped into a scenic pathway designed in the English landscape style according to plans developed by the ‘garden architect of country estates' Lucas Pieters Roodbaard.
Onze Lieve Vrouwepoort
The Wirdumerpoort (or Sint Jacobspoort)
The Hoeksterpoort (or Sint Catharinapoort)
The Tuinsterpoort
Onze Lieve Vrouwepoort
The Vrouwepoort was the most prominent entry to the town for traffic coming from Franeker and Harlingen. Its name was derived from Mary, Our Lady (Onze Lieve Vrouwe), the patron saint of the Nijehove church. The earliest Vrouwepoort was probably a wooden construction, but the second gate, built when the new town canal was excavated, was made of brick and built at the western end of Nieuwestad. This simple gate was replaced again in 1579 by a new version.
During the early seventeenth century a guardhouse was added along with two slender, pointed towers. The defensive work was completed by 1620 when the ravelin in front of the gate was enlarged. It was on this outwork that an outer gate arose. This outer gate was also the first part of the Vrouwepoort to be torn down. This occurred in 1820 and was followed by the removal of the inner gate in 1837. The Vrouwepoort bastion between the outer gate and Schavernek was then turned into a pleasure park known as Westerplantage.
The Wirdumerpoort (or Sint Jacobspoort)
The town's expansion south of Nieuwestad during the fifteenth century and the construction of a new canal during the years 1481-1489 made it necessary to build a new entry into the town on its south side. The former gate had been more to the north, at the intersection of Naauw and Sint Jacobsstraat, an explanation for the name of the gate: the Sint Jacobspoort.
The new Sint Jacobspoort built at the head of Wirdumerdijk in 1494 was usually called Wirdumerpoort. A half-century later, reinforcement was considered necessary and the gate received two turreted towers no less than 16½ metres tall on its landward side. Finally, in 1613, the gate was extended under the town ramparts into a passage more than twenty metres in length and was provided with a house for the gatekeeper. An outer gate had already been built in 1597 at the northeast corner of the bastion located in front of the inner gate.
In 1822 the Wirdumerpoort's outer gate was pulled down, followed by the inner gate in 1835, four years after the abolition of gate tolls. The Wirdumerdijk was then connected in a straight line to the newly built bridge known as the Zuiderbrug or Wirdumerpoortsbrug across the former bastion.
The Hoeksterpoort (or Sint Catharinapoort)
The Hoeksterpoort was the eastern gateway to the town for traffic coming from Groningen. As far as is known, the first gate at this location was built in 1484 when the new canal was excavated. It got its name from a nearby hamlet, Hoek. The second eponym for the building was St. Catharine, the patron saint of the church of Hoek located somewhat more to the south on the Voorstreek. Built soon after the land gate, and next to it, was a water gate through which a small river, the Ee (the present Dokkumer Ee), flowed into the town.
At first this gate was a simple passageway through the town wall. During the course of the sixteenth century, however, renovations changed the gate's appearance and two turreted towers completed it in 1625. After the construction of a ravelin known as Hoeksterdwinger, an inner gate was built in 1584 in front of the former inner gate. This was then replaced in 1783 by one in Doric style.
In 1831, both the inner and outer gates as well as the water gate were pulled down. Part of the ravelin moat was drained and a new motorway (Groningerstraatweg) was constructed over the levelled Hoeksterdwinger. A gasworks was later built on the ravelin, and what stands there today is a parking garage.
The Tuinsterpoort
The Tuinsterpoort was a water gate built in 1496, two years after the completion of the new town canal. This structure formed the link between a canal (named Tuinen) and a settlement located outside the town on the Vliet, the waterway heading eastward from the town.
The town authorities did everything possible to thwart trade and industry engaged in along the Vliet and thus did not approve of the construction of a land gate with a drawbridge linking the town with the settlement outside until 1656. Once approved, the water gate with its two massive towers emerging from the water was accompanied by a small stone gate in the form of a narrow pathway leading to the bridge through the thick town wall.
Later, in 1818, upon the request of the people living on Tuinen, and also due to maintenance costs, the authorities decided to demolish both the land gate and the water gate, which also marked the beginning of the dismantling of the town's fortifications.