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Nijland (The Netherlands)

Wymbritseradiel municipality, Fryslân province

image by Jarig Bakker, 23 Sep 2003

Nijland village (Nijlân)
Nijland coat of arms

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Nijland village (Nijlân)

Nijland (Frisian: Nijlân) is a village in Wymbritseradiel municipality, Fryslân province, with (1958) 723; (1974) 657 inhabitants. The name means: New Land; the village existed probably already before 1100 in the parts of the old Middelzee, which were made dry. The church was built in 1275:
"In 1275 several inhabitants of this village near Bolsward started building a church, as in those days no village was a village without a church. But something weird was happening: everything they built one day was demolished on the next day; this happened three times in a row, so they thought that this was Gods way of telling them that something was amiss, probably that they were building on the wrong site. The fourth evening they put two oxen before a sledge, loaded with some earth and some stones. One of the builders said: "Go now in Gods name! Where you will be found tomorrow there we will build our church". Next morning a posse was sent to trace the oxen and they were found on a very marshy piece of land, and each ox had a burning wax-light on its head. The builders started as soon as possible to heighten that place, and built their church. And although the work was heavy and toilsome, the church was finally finished and can still be admired in all its glory".
Nijland coat of arms: (the Jierboekje does not give a description, so here's my trial) per fess a. silver charged with two red oxen's heads, chained to each other; b. green charged with a silver cross
Flag: green, with overall a white cross with a width of 1/4 flag height; in the center of the cross a red oxen's head.
Flag and coat of arms are based on the old rime:
"Twa oksen en in skepke sân,
dat is it wapen fan Nijlân".
(Two oxen and a spoonful of sand, is the arms of Nijland)
The legend was written down by Andreas Cornelius in 1597 in the "Chronicke ende warachtige beschrijving van Vriesland".
Source: Genealogysk Jierboekje 1975.
Encyclopedie van Friesland, 1958.
"Uit Friesland's Volksleven", by Waling Dijkstra, 1895 (reprint 1970).
Jarig Bakker, 24 Sep 2003

Nijland coat of arms

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