Boazum ( nl, Bozum
) is a
Frisian village in the municipality of
Súdwest-Fryslân,
Netherlands with an approximate population of 397 in January 2017. The Boazum church is an example of
romanesque twelfth-century architecture and possesses an
Ottonian fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' 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 plaste ...
portraying a beardless
Christ.
History
The village was first mentioned in 1260 as Bosingum, and "settlement of the people of Bose (person)". Boazum is a ''
terp'' (artificial living hill) village. It was located on a river leading to the former
Middelzee.
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–
Sneek railway line between 1883 and 1944. Before 2018, the village was part of the
Littenseradiel municipality.
Notable people
A famous Boazumer (although mainly by proxy) was the reverend
Eelco Alta (1723-1798), whose treatise ''Philosophical Considerations concerning the
Conjunction of the Planets
Jupiter,
Mars,
Venus,
Mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
and the
Moon. To be happening on the Eighth of May 1774, and about the Possible and Likely
Astronomical and Physical Consequences of this Conjunction'' from 1774 was long said to have motivated
Eise Eisinga 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 planetarium ...
. 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 in which a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a human intermediary. The means of mediation include dreams, visions and heavenly journeys, and they typically feature symbolic imager ...
, 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
The Protestant church of Boazum or Saint Martin's churchAlle middeleeuwse kerken: van Harlingen tot Wilhelmshaven, P Karstkarel, p. 47 is a medieval religious building in Boazum, Friesland, Netherlands. It is a late 12th century Romanesque church ...
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, Alpacas and sheep near Boazum
References
External links
{{Authority control
Súdwest-Fryslân
Populated places in Friesland