Frisian capital and Mata Hari's birthplace — canals, cows, and Escher's staircase
Leeuwarden is the quiet capital of Friesland, a province with its own language, culture, and sense of identity quite distinct from the rest of the Netherlands. The city is the birthplace of two unlikely icons: Mata Hari, the WWI spy-courtesan, and M.C. Escher, the graphic artist of impossible staircases and tessellations. The Fries Museum holds exceptional Frisian silver and contemporary art, and the leaning Oldehove tower — a 16th-century building that started sinking during construction and was never completed — rivals Pisa. The city was European Capital of Culture in 2018.
Leeuwarden grew from a series of terpen (artificial mounds built to escape flooding) in early medieval times, gradually merging into a city when the surrounding area was drained. It became capital of the County of Friesland in 1515 when Habsburg rule was established, and grew prosperous as an administrative and trading centre. Mata Hari (Margaretha Geertruida Zelle) was born here in 1876 and became one of the most famous women in Europe before her execution in Paris in 1917. M.C. Escher was born here in 1898. Frisian culture — distinct language, cattle breeding, traditional sports like fierlj…