Boazum () is a Frisian village in the municipality of

Súdwest-Fryslân Southwest Friesland ( ) is a municipality in the northern Netherlands, located in the province of Friesland. It had a population of 89,999 in January 2021. Sneek is the municipal seat. With a total area of 841.56 km2, Southwest-Friesland is ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

with an approximate population of 397 in January 2017. The Boazum church is an example of romanesque twelfth-century architecture and possesses an

Ottonian The Ottonian dynasty () was a Saxon dynasty of German monarchs (919–1024), named after three of its kings and Holy Roman emperors, especially Otto the Great. It is also known as the Saxon dynasty after the family's origin in the German stem du ...

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

portraying a beardless

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

History

The village was first mentioned in 1260 as Bosingum, and "settlement of the people of Bose (person)". Boazum is a ''

terp A ''terp'', also known as a ''wierde, woerd, warf, warft, werf, werve, wurt'' or ''værft'', is an artificial dwelling mound found on the North European Plain that has been created to provide safe ground during storm surges, high tides and ...

'' (artificial living hill) village. It was located on a river leading to the former

Middelzee The Middelzee (Dutch language, Dutch for "middle sea"; ), also called Bordine, was the estuary mouth of the River Boorne (West Frisian: ''Boarn'') now in the Netherlands, Dutch province of Friesland. It ran from as far south as Sneek northward to ...

. The ''

stins A stins (Dutch, pl. ''stinsen''; from West Frisian ''stienhûs'' utch ''steenhuis''"stone house", shortened to ''stins'', pl. ''stinzen'') is a former stronghold or villa in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands. Many stinsen carry the name ...

'' Walta State was located on the southern part of the ''terp'' and was first described in 998. It was demolished in 1839. The Dutch Reformed church dates from the late-12th century and has a 13th-century tower. It was extensively modified and restored between 1939 and 1948. Boazum was home to 423 people in 1840. There was a railway station on the

Leeuwarden Leeuwarden (; ; ; ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 127,073 (2023). It is the provincial capital and seat of the Provin ...

–

Sneek Sneek (; ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city southwest of Leeuwarden and the seat of the former municipality of Sneek in the province of Friesland, Netherlands. As of 2011 it is the seat of the municipality of Súdw ...

railway line between 1883 and 1944. Before 2018, the village was part of the

Littenseradiel Littenseradiel () is a former municipality in the northern Netherlands, known in Dutch as Littenseradeel (). The municipality was formed on 1 January 1984 by a merger of the former municipalities Baarderadeel and Hennaarderadeel. On 1 January 201 ...

municipality.

Notable people

A famous Boazumer (although mainly by proxy) was the reverend

Eelco Alta Eelco Alta (23 June 1723, in Makkum, Súdwest-Fryslân – 17 August 1798, in Bozum) was a Frisian clergyman, theologian, and veterinarian. Education Eelco Alta was born in 1723 in the coastal village of Makkum, and studied theology at the Uni ...

(1723-1798), whose treatise ''Philosophical Considerations concerning the Conjunction of the Planets

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

, Mercury and the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

. To be happening on the Eighth of May 1774, and about the Possible and Likely

Astronomical Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest include ...

and Physical Consequences of this Conjunction'' from 1774 was long said to have motivated

Eise Eisinga Eise Jeltes Eisinga (21 February 1744 – 27 August 1828) was a Frisian astronomer and autodidact who built the Eise Eisinga Planetarium in his house in Franeker, Dutch Republic. The orrery still exists and is the oldest functioning planetariu ...

to build his famous

planetarium A planetarium (: planetariums or planetaria) is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetariums is ...

. According to the canonicised view, Alta stated that the upcoming conjunction of the planets with the sun would herald the

apocalypse Apocalypse () is a literary genre originating in Judaism in the centuries following the Babylonian exile (597–587 BCE) but persisting in Christianity and Islam. In apocalypse, a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a ...

, and through his planetarium, Eisinga was able to prove that in fact, the conjunction would not take place. Modern research has however come to the more prosaic conclusion that Eisinga was mainly motivated by practical motives - most of all not having to calculate the orbits and respective positions of the planets and the sun on paper, but instead using his planetarium as a reference.Huib J. Zuidervaart, ''Speculatie, wetenschap en vernuft. Fysica en astronomie volgens Wytze Foppes Dongjuma (1707-1778), instrumentmaker te Leeuwarden'' (Leeuwarden: Fryske Akademy, 1995).

Notable buildings

* The Protestant church of Boazum

Gallery

File:20140530 Suderdyk 2 Boazum (Bozum) Fr NL.jpg, Farm in Boazum File:Aanzicht - Bozum - 20039486 - RCE.jpg, Former bakery (1965) File:Overzicht - Bozum - 20039490 - RCE.jpg, Houses in Boazum (1965) File:20190515 alpacas en schapen ten zuidwesten van Boazum.jpg,

Alpaca The alpaca (''Lama pacos'') is a species of South American camelid mammal. Traditionally, alpacas were kept in herds that grazed on the level heights of the Andes of Southern Peru, Western Bolivia, Ecuador, and Northern Chile. More recentl ...

s and sheep near Boazum

References

External links

{{Authority control Súdwest-Fryslân Populated places in Friesland