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 flag]](../images/n/nl-fr_nl.gif)
image
by Jarig Bakker, 23 Sep 2003
See also:
![[Nijland Coat of Arms]](../images/n/nl-fr)nl.gif)
from this site.
