De Oldehove is an unfinished church tower in the medieval centre of the Dutch city of Leeuwarden. It leans more than the tower of Pisa in Italy.

Oldehove is also the name of an artificial mound ("terp" in Dutch) on which in the late 9th century a (Catholic) church dedicated to Saint Vitus was built. Construction of the adjoining Late Gothic

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 tower began in 1529, after the citizens of Leeuwarden demanded a tower taller than the one in the city of Groningen, the Martinitoren

Martinitoren

The Martinitoren is the highest church tower in the city of Groningen, The Netherlands.The tower is located at the north-eastern corner of the Grote Markt , is part of the Martinikerk . The tower contains a brick spiral staircase consisting of 260 steps, and the carillon within the tower contains...

. In charge were Jacob van Aken (or Aaken) and, after his death, Cornelis Frederiksz.

During construction, the tower began to sag, which the builders tried to compensate for by inserting several "kinks", but the project was stopped in 1532 (1533 according to another source). In 1595-1596, the then derelict church was demolished, but the tower remains. It consists mostly of brick, but the builders also used so-called Bentheim

Bentheim

County of Bentheim is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the Dutch provinces of Overijssel and Drenthe, the district of Emsland, and the districts of Steinfurt and Borken in North Rhine-Westphalia.- History :The District has roughly the same territory as the County of...

 sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

. It is listed as a Rijksmonument

Rijksmonument

A rijksmonument is a National Heritage Site of the Netherlands, listed by the agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed acting for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.-History and criteria:...

, number 24331.

Sources

• Stenvert, R. et al. (2000). Monumenten in Nederland: Fryslân, p. 25, 41 and 189–196. Waanders Uitgevers, Zwolle, the Netherlands. ISBN 90-400-9476-4.