IJlst (; ) is a city in Friesland,

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 ...

. It is located about 3 km southwest of

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 ...

. It lies within the municipality of Súdwest-Fryslân and had a population of approximately 3,140 in January 2017.

History

It received city rights in 1268 and is one of the eleven cities in Friesland. It was the fourth city receiving city rights after Stavoren, Hindeloopen and Harlingen. The city was well-known for its excellent location in local trade and its ship-building industry. When the Middelzee silted up, the importance of trade declined and the city focused on its ship-building industry. The city had its own castle, a so called stins, named the Ylostins. Between 1654 and 1664, Renier van Tzum was burgomaster of IJlst. Van Tzum was the '' opperhoofd'' or chief factor of the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

(''Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie'' or VOC) in Siam (1643–1644). He was also VOC ''opperhoofd'' in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

(1644–1646).Historigraphical Institute (''Shiryō hensan-jo''), University of Tokyo
"24 November 1644-27 October 1646 (Volume Nine)"
; retrieved 2013-02-06. Before 2011, the city was part of the Wymbritseradiel municipality and before 1984 IJlst was an independent municipality.

Name

The name IJlst derives from the name of the river IJ or Ey. The river IJ is the central point of the little city. IJlst has a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

located between the cities of

and Stavoren.

Gallery

Image:IJlst, kerk1 foto8 2011-04-24 13.15.JPG, church Image: IJlst 09.JPG, IJlst Image: De Rat molen IJlst 25.JPG, Windmill ''De Rat''

References

External links

Cities in the Netherlands Cities in Friesland Populated places in Friesland Súdwest-Fryslân {{Friesland-geo-stub