Commune: Franekeradeel
Franeker, one of the 11 towns of Friesland, lies to the west of Leeuwarden. It first appears in the records in 1085; in the 12th century it was surrounded by walls and a moat; and it received a municipal charter in 1417. It is a charming little town with its ring of canals and its fine old buildings
Franeker is also noted for the Eise Eisinga Planetarium.
A university - the second in the Netherlands, after Leiden - was founded in Franeker in 1585, making it the cultural center of the north of the country. The most celebrated student of the Frisian Academy was the French philosopher Descartes. The university was dissolved by Napoleon in 1811 and was replaced in 1815 by an Athenaeum, which continued in existence until 1843.
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