OUD-KRONENBURG
The third largest
populated municipality of Kronenburg is Oud-Kronenburg
('Old-Kronenburg'), which consists of the city of Noordeinde
(850,000 inhabitants) and the villages of Pingjum, De
Boskery and Blauwe Schans. Oud-Kronenburg is the
municipality that has the most agriculture; in other
municipalities with areas not occupied by buildings or
forests, farmers tend to do more cattle-breeding.
Oud-Kronenburg also contains the ruins of the old capital of
Kronenburg(-City), which was destroyed in 1871 by a
bombardment by the United States and wasn't rebuilt. Since
then, Alexanderstad has been the capital of Kronenburg.
The municipality
of Oud-Kronenburg was created in 1919, without a real
capital. The municipal institutions were located in the
almost completely destroyed harbour of Kronenburg-City. In
1923 Noordeinde was built as future part of Alexanderstad;
it expanded however to the north and enclosed the ruins of
Kronenburg-City, as well as the municipal institutions. It
was however only in 1950 that Noordeinde was recognised as a
city and made capital of Oud-Kronenburg. The original
boundaries - and even some city walls - of Kronenburg-City
still exist and are clearly visible on the map of
Noordeinde. The remnants of Kronenburg-City are therefore
often inaccurately considered by tourists as the Old Town of
Noordeinde. This has brought the city some kind of identity
crisis: on one hand, Noordeinde is a somewhat dull, modern
city without much history of its own, so it benefits from
the turbulent history of another city.
Noordeinde has
therefore in fact two city centres: the old Kronenburg and
the modern centre of Noordeinde itself. The modern centre is
formed by a large oval square (the Nicolaasmarkt),
which is surrounded by modern buildings with a lot of wood
and glass; an effect of the modernisation of the city which
started at the beginning of the nineties and was finished in
2002 with the opening of the solemn New Nicolas Church
('Nieuwe Nicolaaskerk') on the northern side of the square.
This church is still popularly called the 'Blue Church',
based on the colour of the first Nicolas Church, which was
destroyed by fire in the sixties. The new church fits
perfectly in its surroundings of wood and glass; in the
front wall, the account of the Creation is depicted, and the
church has three crooked looking towers of dissimilar
height, which each have a part of the traditional clock: the
highest tower on the west side of the church has the digits,
the lowest tower in the middle has the hour-hand and the
middle tower on the east side has the minute-hand.
Other buildings on
the Nicolaasmarkt are of course the city hall and the
mayor's house, some other government institutions and the
Guild and Craft Museum, which also has a presentation about
the designers of the modernisation of Noordeinde, the
architects Ruurd-Willem Haisma and Frank Theijsz. In the
middle of the square there is a statue of king Alexander I
sitting on a horse, and at the north and south side of the
square are entrances to the subway that leads to
Alexanderstad. According to some, the square could have some
more trees.
Going to the
north, the Hermesallee, an long avenue rich of trees,
connects the Nicolaasmarkt to the old centre of
Kronenburg-City. For tourists, this avenue - which is kept
free of cars - is a nice walk between the sights of
Kronenburg-City and the connection with Alexanderstad. The
house prices at the Hermesallee were the highest of
Kronenburg until the beginning of the financial crisis, but
many companies that had their main offices in one of the
stately buildings have since moved elsewhere. Between the
ruins of Kronenburg-City new houses have been built, but
many remnants can still be found that remind of old times.
The official tour for tourists leads them criss-cross
through several streets and alleys to historical atmosphere.
Only in 2003 the information given during this tour has been
rewritten to sound a bit less unfriendly towards the United
States.
Otherwise,
Noordeinde is mainly made up of residential areas and
industry. The city has very unromantically been divided in
eleven nameless, but numbered city quarters ('wijken').
Apart from one or two small museums, there is little to do
for the average tourist. The huge shopping centre in Wijk 6
is an exception: this centre has of course the standard
supermarkets and other standard shops, but there are also
many exclusive little shops with cultural and religious
themes. The building itself was designed by Frank Theijsz.
In Wijk 6 one can also find the largest collection of
religious communities of Kronenburg; in this quarter one can
find e.g. the country's only (official) mosque.
Wijk 4 is the
harbour of Noordeinde, from where ferries connect Kronenburg
with the North American mainland. Also the island of De
Boskery, with its villages De Boskery and Blauwe Schans, can
be reached from the Wijk 4 harbour.
Pingjum and the
island of De Boskery
The village of Pingjum lies north of Noordeinde and is
separated from the city by only a small strip of fields. In
order to maintain the authentic character of the village, it
is forbidden to use this strip for anything other than
nature or agriculture, according to a law from 1987. On the
whole, Pingjum isn't that interesting a village. There is a
small museum about native Americans that lived in Kronenburg
and were partly extinguished, partly mingled with the new
Kronenburg society. The 'Indian Museum' as it is still
called in popular language, has been criticized for years
because of the bad and, according to some, inaccurate
quality of the information presented there.
The island of De
Boskery is a popular summer destination for youth scouts.
Because the woody island is rather small, and the fact that
there are already two villages on it, the island authorities
of De Boskery have limited the daily number of visitors.
This limitation is strictly checked and has led to a large
quantity of bureaucratic hassle.
Mayors of
Oud-Kronenburg |
1919 - 1926
1926 - 1929
1929 - 1939
1939 - 1944
1944 - 1947
1947 - 1967 |
Cornelis van Harlingen
Edmund Bosman
Karel Lantinga Alkema
Fetze Hommema
Brian Charlesworth
Jan Wiegman |
|
1967 - 1974
1974 - 1979
1979 - 1986
1986 - 1995
1995 - 1999
1999 - 2003 |
Elsbeth Venema-Ubbega (f)
Nico Styrup
Michiel Wolffs
Fred Remkes
Grete Tjepkema-Bunnema (f)
Sigurd
Jörgensen |
|
2003 - 2012
2012 - 2012 |
Alfred Dopper
Lena Ewen (f) |
|
|