Wiarda State in Goutum (1380-1882) - a history

The family once owned its own "stins". A stins (pl. Both stinsen and stinzen) is a medieval, defensible, habitable tower (later also built horizontally) in Friesland. The originally Frisian word stins means stone house. Research shows that there have been hundreds of such stins. Many were later absorbed in the large country houses that bore the name 'state' and with these states many stinsen went down. The word stins is used regularly for a state that goes back to a stins.

Stinsen in the old sense also occur in East Friesland and are called 'steinhaus' there. Today, many modern residential complexes in Friesland, but also far beyond, have a name that ends in state. In total Friesland would have known more than 175 states.[1]

Location: The Wiarda State was in Goutum, municipality of Leeuwarden.

Origin: The State is mentioned for the first time in the 14th century.

This state was inhabited in the late Middle Ages by the Wiardas, an important generation of chiefs. Around 1380 Pybe Wiarda lived in Goutum and probably he was the father of Sjoerd Wiarda. The latter was in 1399, in the battle against the count of Holland, Leader of Oostergo. On the land days of Oostergo in nearby Barrahuis, he was a man of great esteem. In 1400 he must have fought alongside the Schieringers in the battle of Dokkum and the Camminghastins. In 1406 he was a co-judge in the court "in der Bacuwa", the Leeuwarder Nieuwland, southwest of the city. Sjoerd had two brothers, Ids and Oene. Ids took the name of his mother and called himself Ids Eminga. He built Eminga State at approximately the place where the Aldlânstate rest home is now located in Leeuwarden. Oene also got its own state: Burmania State, a little west of Eminga State.

According to tradition, these brothers knew what they were doing, because the states of Burmania, Wiarda and Eminga were also called Putsma State, Schenkinsma State (pour in) and Drinkuitsma State (drink out ) in this order. They even appear on maps. Even Eekhoff mentions on his map from 1847 the names Putsma and Drinkuitsma instead of Burmania and Eminga.

Tsjomme Wiarda was the last of his branch of the family. He certainly will not have shown himself in the battle between the Schieringers and the Vetkopers. In 1457 he acts as an envoy from Oostergo to the prince of Burgundy. He wanted to be in control of Friesland and Tsjomme went to him to discuss matters. He must have done it again in the seventies of that century. He must have been treasure-rich and used that wealth to support the church. In 1449 he donated the "Smeynghagoed in Birstens" (Birstum near Akkrum) to the Franciscan Tertiary Monastery in Aalzum. In 1472, the year his wife died, he donated the Syurdism goods (Sjoerdsma state) in Lekkum to the Holy Sacraments Guild in Leeuwarden that cared for the poor. This gift was entrusted with various legacies, including one for the poor of Goutum. He died in 1473 and inherited the state from his second cousin Syds Eminga.

In 1481 the Goutumers participated in an attack by the Schieringers on Leeuwarden, but it failed. In 1498 many distinguished men died in a major battle against the Leeuwarders. There was also Doytse Wiarda. According to historian Gabbema, the Leeuwarders obtained "good loot" in Goutum.

A year later, the stins of prominent Schieringers in Huizum, Goutum and Wirdum were demolished by the Leeuwarders.

Minne van Eminga began to make Wiardastins a more habitable home in 1525. A quieter time had arrived. Charles V was Lord of Friesland, the battle between Schieringers and Vetkopers was suppressed and the old stinsen could no longer protect the residents against the guns and rifles of any enemies. Minne made a start on what would become a large and stately Wiarda State over time.

Tiberius (Tjepke) Pepinus of Eminga who inhabited the state from 1659 to 1733 was wealthy. He owned 7 farms under Goutum, 3 under Swichum and 2 under Wirdum. And that was only his possession in the immediate vicinity.

After Tiberius Pepinus of Eminga died childless in 1733, the state was inhabited by his widow His Maria of Burmania and her second husband Ulbo Sixma of Andla, who came from Minnertsga. Later the Roman Catholic Van Camminghas, who came from Oenema State in Wirdum, inherited the state. Ruerd Carel van Cammingha, the last of his family, could no longer afford the costs of living in such a house. When advertisements appeared in the newspapers in 1881 in which Wiarda State was offered for sale, the Frisian Society still considered purchasing the state and accommodating its museum there. Although this society was founded and was led by a number of wealthy individuals, the purchase and maintenance were too expensive for them and the state went down without glory. The state was sold for demolition in July 1881. A year later everything lay flat.

The core of the complex consisted of the 16th century "Groothuis" that was two storeys high and no less than ten window sections wide. It had a high gable roof between top gables. It was built symmetrically with the door right in the middle, an extended roof cabin right above the door and a stair tower at the rear in the middle that had a tall, eight-sided, once rejuvenated, crowned lantern crown.

A "New House" was built against this large house in 1683 by the art-loving Tiberius of Eminga. A slightly lower two-storey building that was seven windows wide and three deep. A large coach and stable building with a tall hipped roof stood to the side of the forecourt. A gate with stepped gables, which was built in 1636, gave the entrance allure for the excavated site.

A visitor who described the house after the expansion in 1683 gives an impression of the interior of the state. "Around here we see a ceiling with beams painted red and gold, there gold leather wallpaper full of convex figures, monkeys, parrots, children, flowers and other figures, elsewhere paintings, brought from Italy and other artworks, further painted ceilings, doors with bronze and gold and painted windows, with his family crest . There was a toilet room for his first wife Lutz of Ornia, and furthermore in the old and new part up to this time: a large dance hall with beautiful plastered ceiling, a knight's hall with a ceiling of green and gold, a sort of judgment room, in mysterious frame, a parish room with 'the chapel' next to it, painted blue from above and by side ".

Wiarda State residents

WIARDA STATE IN GOUTUM WITH AN ARTICLE FROM THE "WIARDASTATE" STUERS

In the absence of new data, it is not a very rewarding task to write about Wiarda-State again. After the detailed interior description of the entomologist Jhr. GA Six, a brother-in-law of the last resident and the article published after the demolition in 1881 by Victor de Stuers, the founder of Nederlandsche Monumentenzorg (Dutch Monument care) , the latter - little, but still very worthwhile, contribution that I may recommend to the editors for re-recording,no new points of view occurred. An excavation site of the former castle would be very welcome to trace any traces of older buildings. The measurements commissioned by De Stuers were made on the structure that was still fully intact and not during the demolition, which presumably had yielded much more information about construction time and the construction itself.

In any case, there must have been a Wiarda State in the fifteenth century (probably earlier). By analogy with the preserved remains of other Frisian States, we may assume that it was composed of two wings perpendicular to each other with a and tower in the corner on the inside. The extent to which the later situation, in which a much lower transverse wing had been installed on the corner of the large main building, as can be seen on the frontispiece by De Stuers article, cannot be attributed to this presumed older situation.

The late 18th century engraving by J. Bulthuis (1750 - 1801), the best image that we have of Wiarda State, with the misleading caption Drinkuitsma State shows the entire complex, as described by De Stuers, including the gatehouse of common type. The annexed part of 1683 had seven windows on the side and six on the bottom; on the other hand, a shed or something similar has been placed against the main building, half built into the large building house. The unreliable engraving by C. A. Vieweg after a drawing by J. F. Christ (1790-1845) shows something similar, but in the painting depicted herewith, the building annex has disappeared and has been replaced by an orangery.

In his article Six also gives an overview of the former owners and residents of the castle. With Tzomme Wyarda (mentioned in 1449 - 1473) there is certainty, there are only suspicions with regard to his father Oene and uncle Sjoerd, or their father, who would have been called Piebe. Apparently Tzomme's closest legal relative was Syds Minnes Eminga, whose grandfather is Eminga, a younger brother of Sjoerd and Oene. After the death of his great-grandson Gerrit van Eminga, who died childless in 1627, it was inherited by a niece of his wife Tryn van Galama, named Riemke. The arms of her and her first husband, Sicke (or Latinized to Sixtus) of Aebinga (Ebbinga), date from 1636 on the gate, of which they apparently were the builders. After Sicke's death in 1636, Riem remarried to a grandson of the same name by Syds van Eminga, uncle of the aforementioned Gerrit, which brought Wiarda-State back into the possession of his family. So at least Six, who has some difficulty with the 1631 death year of Syds reported by the Studbook, who would then have been 74 years old. Now their grandson Tiberius Pepinus was born in 1656 or '57 and his father Sicke was enrolled as a student in Orleans on 15 June 1655 (apparently just like later his son, who arrived there on 15 March 1680 in transit), so that I rather reversed the order of the marriages otherwise it would all occur at a too young age.

The later-mentioned Tiberius Pepinus (aka Tjepcke) van Eminga was born in Leeuwarden and grew up there after the early death of both his parents (1659). He travelled April 26, 1678 (n.st.) - January 24, 1682 through Germany, Italy and France, married July 26, 1682 in Amsterdam to the wealthy Lucia Ornia (1664/54 - 1703), settled on Wiarda State and built in 1683 the above-mentioned Western extension, of which the richly carved gate has been preserved. Six mentions various Italian matters brought by him from his journey, the journal of which is the only item of the Wiarda State archive in the municipal archive of Leeuwarden. He died childless September 17, 1733, his third wife and heiress is Mary of Burmania 24 years later and her next husband in 1760. Wiarda-State then comes to the Camminghas, who had been living on Oenema-State for several centuries, also in Wirdum and, like the Eminga's remained Roman Catholic. Cammingha's Lieutenant General Watze Wytze still died on Oenema-State in 1764, but both his sons Gerrit Ferdinand (who died in 1770) and Ruurd Carel (who died in 1793) moved into the new possession. It was subsequently inhabited by the latter's widow, A.C.L. Lemper. Widow Cramer (died in 1832) and her third husband O.F.W. van Glockman (died in 1816), her daughter Maria Gertrudis van Cammingha (1788 - 1842) and her cousin the latter, Jhr. Ruurd Carel van Cammingha (1822 - 1884), who demolished Wiarda State more than a year before his death. In the meantime the family had become protestant.

WIARDA-STATE (article by Victor Stuers from 1884)

Among all the castles of Friesland, Wiarda State in Goutum near Leeuwarden, was one of the most famous. It was generally known that it was an old and beautiful building and that a large number of portraits and antiquities of the Cammingha family and other significant Frisian families were preserved there. These antiquities were by Jhr. G. A. Six (in the Free Frisian of 1870) described in detail, but almost no one could have seen the paintings themselves because the Wiarda State was difficult to visit. The last owner had peculiar ideas on this point and only allowed visitors in very rare cases. He even once refused to receive King William III. He continued to do this, even when he had already made the regrettable decision to demolish the old family house. The architect, who because of the Department of The Interior was charged with drawing the building, went there from The Hague, but was not admitted until the general viewing day and against payment of 1 guilder. He also suffered a great deal of nuisance due to the large numbers of buyers and curious people, and had still not completed his measurements in the afternoon. He unsuccessfully applied for admission on the following day and had to return to Friesland two weeks later in order to complete his drawings on the sales day. We owe it to the persistence of that architect that we can still show a picture of Wiarda State from the 19th century.

The building was close to the village church on a site surrounded by water, where a castle Wiarda seems to have stood already in 1404. Access to this site is through a brick gatehouse that has been preserved until now (now stored in the Fries Museum), dating from 1636.

It is a simple passage between two walls, closed at the front and at the back by a circular arch. Above the passage is a beam layer on which the floor of an attic rests; above this, a loft has been converted into a dovecote. The stepped gables, which close this upper floor, have an oval window on the outside, and on the castle side two small elongated square windows and above that, in the form of a triangle, suitable holes for the pigeons. Above the transit arch one sees a stone on the outside with the year 1636, two linked weapons and the names of Sixtus van Ebbinga and of Rieme van Galema.

It is a simple passage between two walls, closed at the front and at the back by a circular arch. Above the passage is a beam layer on which the floor of an attic rests; above this, a loft has been converted into a dovecote. The stepped gables, which close this upper floor, have an oval window on the outside, and on the castle side two small elongated square windows and above that, in the form of a triangle, suitable holes for the pigeons. Above the transit arch one sees a stone on the outside with the year 1636, two linked weapons and the names of Sixtus van Ebbinga and of Rieme van Galema.

About these people, who are also mentioned as the founders of the castle that was demolished in 1882, the genealogists seem confused. Mr. C.P.E. Robidé van der Aa, who has drawn from the Studbook van den Frieschen Adel van Hettema and van Halmael, writes in his Old Netherlands that Syds van Emingha and his wife Rieme Galema built the gate and the castle, and adds that this Syds of Emingha died on November 19, 1631. The year and the name on the gate conflict with this assignment. Jhr. G. A. Six, who in the Free Frisian of 1870 both the Studbook and Mr. van der Aa has written, says that Riem van Galema was married twice: 1st to Sicke van Aebinga, who is said to have died on 16 October 1636; 2nd marriage thereafter with Syds van Eminga, whom, according to the studbook, he died in 1631, with the remark that there must be an error here in the statement of the year of death. In the meantime, the announcement regarding Sicke van Aebinga or Ebbinga is in line with the inscription above the lock gate.

The castle consisted of three brick buildings attached to each other. The main building, the façade of which is shown in the accompanying drawing, appears to have been built at the same time as the gate. In addition, there was a small functional house, erected by Tjepco van Eminga in 1683 and not depicted on the print. The back building, which was placed against the main building, shows a side wall in the drawing. The large front building, which was approximately 22 by 7 M., had two rooms separated by a vestibule in between. A square stair tower had been built out behind this vestibule, along which one could reach the upper floor. This tower, which became octagonal on the first floor, was covered by a wooden spire with lead covering. He had a small room on the upper part, from which one could enjoy a beautiful view of the surroundings through eight small windows with relief arches. Access to the vestibule was through a staircase and a door, which stood in the middle of the facade between two windows that gave light to the vestibule. Above the door stood under the relief arch a carved stone with two weapons, which, according to the writings of Jhr. GA Six, is said to have belonged to Haringh van Sytzama, who died in 1668, and his wife Perck van Rinia, who died in 1666. This is inconsistent with a previous claim by the same writer that this building was said to have been erected by Rieme van Galema , with 1 of her husbands, which was also confirmed by van der Aa. The architect, who was drawing the castle, forgot that he did not have enough time to take up the coats of arms, so that no clarification can be given.

Each of the downstairs rooms referred to above were provided with four windows opened in the façade with semicircular single-stone relief arches, with simple profiling. Between the windows the anchors of the top floor beam were visible, on which children 's beams rested, which bore the floors. In every room there was a wooden mantelpiece from the 17th century, simple but not without character. The walls of the room, located to the left of the entrance, were covered with a beautiful gold leather wallpaper: birds, flowers and fruits in gold, decorated with red and blue ornaments. Above the chimney and doors were mythological representations, painted by an Italian artist. The opposite room, to the right of the vestibule, had a carpet wallpaper with a simple drawn hunting representation, which gave the room a rich and sophisticated appearance. The upper floor had three rooms; part of the middle one, which was above the vestibule, was separated on the side of the stair tower to serve as a portal to reach the other two. One was the chapel, because the mass was still being read there in the 19th century. Pope Clement XIV allowed Ruurd Karel van Cammingha to be served by his own priest in this chapel. There were three altars, one of which, according to an inscription from 20 September 1615, was dedicated by Nicolaas Zoes, bishop of 's Hertogenbosch. The other upper room had a chimney with old baked blue tiles, while two windows opened in the side wall still contain some very nice windows with burnt-in weapons, dated 1642. The back building that was later built was almost as deep as the front building (8 meters), but slightly less long (19.5 meters); on the overseeing site one found the entrance to the basement and a small room. This rear building, below a part of which the cellar in question had been excavated, consisted only of a ground floor and an attic. It had two rooms, one of which was completely modernized. The attic was illuminated by spacious windows, which were installed in a stepped gable. The roofs of both buildings were covered with tiles. The stone used in the construction was small yellow Frisian bricks. The castle and its turret, partly overgrown with ivy, made a very picturesque impression amid the dense tree crop. Inside there were numerous portraits and antiquities, brought together by successive generations and carefully preserved, which turned Wiarda State into a museum of Frisian history and art. The art objects are now largely included in the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden; the venerable castle, the Wiarda State, was more incomprehensibly demolished by a son of the old tribal house of the Cammingha's, and the picturesque whole has disappeared. Van der Aa, who described the castle in 1837, expressed the wish that this "important and worthwhile building would be allowed to serve the glorious heritage of Cammingha's considerable family for a long time."

Jhr. G. W. Six gave praise to the owners of Wiarda State in 1870 for having maintained this castle, the only one that remained in its entirety, with so much loving care. "Only once," he wrote, "has a vandal resided there. He did not dare to stretch out his violent hand to take the silver sacrament cup from the altar and rob several paintings of its beautiful ebony frames. Fortunately, I can hereby add that he was not a Frisian, but a German, the only stranger who lived there for some time. "

On July 11, 1881, no silver cup was sold, and no painting lost its ebony frame; the old Wiarda State was sold for demolition; the seller was a thoroughbred Frisian, and his name was Jhr. R. C. van Cammingha.

A MONUMENT FOR THE WIARDA STATE ( by Edzard von Wiarda)

When Edzard von Wiarda (9.10.1900-2.9.1996) visited Pastor de Jong in Goutum, he found out that the municipality was planning a park in Goutum, exactly where Wiarda State had been. This gave Edzard the idea to erect a monument for the Wiarda family.

The following day, April 4, 1981, this idea was approved by the board. Then in May 1981, the family association asked the architect Tido Wiarda to design a monument in honour of the Wiarda State. This is because it was (in 1982) 100 years ago that the Wiarda State was demolished.

The project of the family association was approved by the municipality of Leeuwarden in August 1981 and the design by Tido Wiarda was submitted to the municipality in early February 1982 after approval by the board. In a joint meeting with the city council of Leeuwarden, where besides the designer Tido also Yme Wiarda and Edzard von Wiarda were present on behalf of the family association, the permission of the municipality was obtained. This was confirmed in writing on June 3, 1982. After approval, family members donated to pre-finance the monument.

Below is a description of the monument in the photo:

The monument is a stylized concrete (trunk) tree, the crown of which is made of natural stone, the tree symbolizes the existence of the Wiarda family since 1369. The four sides of the crown are each described with a text in Frisian, Dutch, German and English and decorated with the family crest:

Wiarda State 1400-1882

This is the llocation where around the year 1400 the Wiarda State was originally established , and where the ancestor Siurt Wiarda lived . In memory of their ancestors and of the castle, which was demolishd in 1882, the living generation of the Wiarda family erected this monument on the year 1982.

The stone is placed in the center of the compass rose, symbolizing the spread of the family from Goutum. The existing trees around indicate the different flowering branches. The banks around the stone, connected by hedges, represent the family that honours the tradition. The interior is secured with plates and clinkers.

In May 1983, the chairman of the family association Yme Wiarda was able to invite the nearly 70 members of the association who had contributed to the costs and officially presented the monument to the municipality of Leeuwarden on 1 June at 1 p.m.

As representatives of the city of Leeuwarden, councilors D.E. Heere and Ir. L.G.H. Geerts came. Pastor De Jong, Messrs. Van der Meer and Elzinga of the Fryske Academy and The Frysian Museum, Messrs. Germerand and Jongema of Dorpsbelang Goutum, as well as representatives of the press. A "live" radio report was also made of the official celebration.

Alderman Heere unveiled the memorial stone by pulling away the Wiarda flag and hoisting this flag together with the Frisian flag in collaboration with Chairman Edzard von Wiarda as a sign of the inauguration.

Eventually Sybren Wiarda (after Tido Wiarda's idea) appeared dressed in the costume of the medieval Siurt Wiarda, founder of the Wiarda State, who gave an official opening speech. Afterwards, all those present were treated to a Frisian beerenburg from the firm Boomsa Leeuwarden, the Frisian herb bitter.