Ezinge

Geschiedenis

Ezinge is a village in the Dutch province of Groningen. It is located in the municipality of Winsum, about 15 km northwest of the city of Groningen. Ezinge is the oldest, constantly inhabited village in The Netherlands and is in archeological context referred to as "the Pompeii of the North"Ezinge was a separate municipality until 1990, when it was merged with Winsum.HeritageThe village is a legally protected heritage district within the Middag- Humsterland region which itself enjoys the status of Dutch National Landscape and can be found on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage. The main sight of the village is the early 13th century church which stands separated from its tower. The tower is connected to an old schoolbuilding. The three buildings are located on an artificial dwelling hill, known as a terp, with the village and pastures around it, covering a quarter and three quarters, respectively, of the slopes. According to the Dutch Museum of National History, Tacitus has been to Ezinge. Whether true or not, both Tacitus and Pliny the Elder wrote elaborately about the terps and the Frisii and Chauci, the people dwelling upon them.HistoryBefore dikes were built, starting around the beginning of the second millennium, people in the Low Countries, especially in the north, built artificial hills to shelter themselves and their stock from the high tide. Repeatedly over the centuries these hills were reinforced and heightened, often with soil and waste. Crosssections of terps reveal many layers indicating periods of drought, wealth or poverty and even wars and conflagration. At that time before the dikes and later the reclaiming of land, Ezinge was situated on the northern edge of the middle one of the three historical islands of Frisia, now Groningen. The district name "Middag" (now meaning "afternoon" in Dutch) derives from Mid- Oog, literally Mid Island (compare with the name of the island Schiermonnikoog).