Wytgaard ( is a village in

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 ...

municipality in the province of

Friesland Friesland ( ; ; official ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia (), named after the Frisians, is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen (p ...

, the

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 had a population of around 570 in January 2017.

History and name

Wytgaard started as a small hamlet in the 17th century in an area that was that until approximately the 13th century situated on the edge of 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 hamlet arose in a

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enclave west of the Protestant village of Wirdum. The area was listed as "Wytghardera ny land" in 1485. Possibly this refers to a monastery that would have stood there, also explained as '' De Witte Gaarde''. The area in which the hamlet eventually developed was already slightly inhabited and in 1511 it was mentioned as ''Wijtgaerdt'' and in 1543 as ''Uuytgaerd''. After the real hamlet had arisen it was mentioned as '' Wytgaard'' in 1718. And after that the spelling ''Wijtgaard'' was mostly used. The hamlet consisted of two core neighborhoods and they eventually fused together. Slowly it became a small village. Before the municipal reorganizations in 1944, it belonged to the municipality Leeuwarderadeel. The village became independent in 1957 when it officially broke away from Wirdum, it was around the time that the spelling Wytgaard was also in use again. Although it's really not know if the spelling was changed in 1957 when it became a village but the town sign chanced it to Wytgaard and in some of the official record Wytgaard was used. In documents the municipal officials mostly use(d) the spelling Wijtgaard. Both spellings are used after since in Dutch. In West Frisian the spelling was ''Wytgaerd'', up until 1982 when the Fryske Akadamy changed it to ''Wytgaard'' as the preferred spelling in West Frisian. It's still unclear what the real official name is since it became a village of its own. But postal code named is officially Wytgaard. Wytgaard is more often used in Dutch but the spelling Wijtgaard is also still used, especially on maps.

References

{{Authority control Leeuwarden Populated places in Friesland