Dantumadiel is a municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in the province

Province

A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Etymology:The English word "province" is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French "province," which itself comes from the Latin word "provincia," which referred to...

 of Friesland

Friesland

Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands and part of the ancient region of Frisia.Until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian Fryslân...

 (Fryslân) in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. Dantumadiel is a rural municipality characterized by agriculture.

History

The first time Dantumadiel is mentioned was in a document from 1242. In that time Dantumadiel, or Donthmadeil as it was then known, was a part of the Winninghe district, the northern part of Oostergo. The grietenij

Grietenij

A grietenij was a forerunner to the gemeente or municipality in Frisia, particularly inFriesland, and also in Groningen which are now a part of the Netherlands. From the end of the...

 (municipality) Dantumadeel was led by a grietman

Grietman

A grietman is partly a forerunner of the current rural mayor in the province of Friesland, and partly the forerunner of a judge. The area of jurisdiction was the municipality or gemeente...

 (mayor) who was holding office in Rinsumageast and Dantumawoude. The Dutch Municipalities Act of 1851 (Dutch: Gemeentewet van 1851) abolished the grietenijen, which automatically became gemeenten (municipalities) headed by a mayor.http://home.planet.nl/~VERA0000/gemeentewet1851.html

Population centres

The Dantumadiel municipality has a total of 19,399 inhabitants (January 1, 2008), who live in in ten different towns (listed below).

Frisian Name	Dutch Name	Residents
Damwâld	Damwoude	5,568
De Westereen	Zwaagwesteinde	5,175
Feanwâlden *	Veenwouden	3,714
Broeksterwâld	Broeksterwoude	1,236
Rinsumageast	Rinsumageest	1,131
Wâlterswâld	Wouterswoude	1,079
Driezum	Driesum	966
De Falom	De Valom	271
Readtsjerk	Roodkerk	207
Sibrandahûs	Sijbrandahuis	52

Source: Website Dantumadiel municipality

* Including Feanwâldsterwâl (Veenwoudsterwal)

Main sights

• Damwâld (Dantumawâld
  Protestant church of Damwâld-Dantumawâld
  The Protestant church of Damwâld-Dantumawâld or Saint Benedict’s church is a religious building in Damwâld-Dantumawâld, one of the medieval churches in Friesland....
  
   and Moarrewâld
  Protestant church of Damwâld-Moarrewâld
  The Protestant church of Damwâld-Moarrewâld or Saint Boniface’s church is a religious building in Damwâld-Moarrewâld, one of the medieval churches in Friesland....
  
  ) and Rinsumageast
  Protestant church of Rinsumageast
  The Protestant church of Rinsumageast or Saint Alexander’s church is a religious building in Rinsumageast, Netherlands, one of the many medieval churches in Friesland....
  
  , are home to medieval churches.
• The villages Broeksterwâld (Grote Molen
  De Grote Molen, Broeksterwoude
  De Grote Molen is a smock mill in Broeksterwoude, Friesland, Netherlands which has been restored to working order. The mill is listed as a Rijksmonument, number 11679.-History:...
  
   and De Broekmolen
  De Broekmolen, Broeksterwoude
  De Broekmolen is a smock mill in Broeksterwoude, Friesland, Netherlands which has been restored to working order. The mill is listed as a Rijksmonument, number 11678.-History:...
  
  ) Rinsumageast and Readtsjerk are home to mills.
• The Skierstins
  Skierstins
  The Skierstins is a medieval Stienhús built c. 1300 out of brick in Feanwâlden. It is the only remaining Stienhús in Friesland and is listed as Rijksmonument, number 11700 and is rated with a very high historical value. The building is first mentioned in 1439 on a piece of parchment....
  
   a medieval fortified house in Feanwâlden.

Persons born in Dantumadiel

• Piet Jongeling
  Piet Jongeling
  Piet Jongeling was a Dutch politician. He was a member of the Reformed Political League and of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands.-References:...
  
   (1909–1985), journalist, politician and children's books writer
• Theun de Vries
  Theun de Vries
  Theunis Uilke de Vries , was a Dutch writer and poet.- Life :De Vries was born in the Frisian town of Veenwouden. His parents moved to Apeldoorn in 1920. In 1936 he joined the Communist Party of the Netherlands and a year later he moved to Amsterdam to pursue a career in journalism...
  
   (1907–2005), writer
• Tineke Huizinga
  Tineke Huizinga
  Johanna Catharina Huizinga-Heringa is a former Dutch politician. She was a Member of Parliament for the ChristianUnion from 2002 to 2007. From 2007 till 2010 she was a Secretary of State and in 2010 Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning.Huizinga grew up in Amersfoort; both of her parents...
  
   (1960), politician
• Syb van der Ploeg (1966), musician and composer

Politics

The Dantumadiel municipal government consists of a municipal council, board of aldermen and the mayor. Arie Aalberts (CDA

Christian Democratic Appeal

The Christian Democratic Appeal is a centre-right Dutch Christian democratic political party. It suffered severe losses in the 2010 elections and fell from the first to the fourth place...

) is the mayor of Dantumadiel since September 2004.

External links

• Official Website