page_title: Almenum
section_title: Medieval history
hierarchical_section_title: Almenum / Medieval history
caption_attribution_description: title: Harlingen; size 38 x 50
context_page_description: Almenum is a historic locality in the northern Netherlands, near Midlum, Friesland the site of the first Christian church in Friesland. Saint Boniface set up a local church in the locality in 754. The location of the church is on the Terp of Almenum, a mound of earth about five meters high. Almenum is named after the place where someone called "Allaman" lived. The -um suffix is derived from the West Frisian word "hiem" meaning "home". An alternative explanation for the name of the locality is that it originally meant common lands for grazing cattle. In Icelandic this kind of land still uses the term "almenningurheim".
context_section_description: The Harns and Harliga families occupied fortified estates in the west of Almenum. They jostled for preeminence and were rivals. On Easter day in the year 1064 Ruurd Jans Harliga killed Sasker Harns in a dispute about who would first make an offering for the poor at the church. This triggered a vendetta involving three families. The Gratinga, Gerbranda, and Harns families were killing and massacring each other for over a century. It culminated in Douwe Harns stabbing Sikke Gratinga's son with a pitchfork as he crossed Harns land on the way to the Gratinga property in 1133. Outrage ensued, and the country was split into two opposed factions. The Harns stins was  put under siege and eventually conquered and the killer and his family brought to justice. The stins was razed to the ground. A treaty was agreed to in 1148, called "a covenant of satisfaction".  The parties pretended to agree, but actually dissatisfaction simmered beneath.
  In 1157 Eilwardus Ludinga founded a monastery called Ludingakerke. The monks of the monastery dug canals from Almenum to an already existing channel past Vlieland and Texel to provide access to trading vessels. (In these times the coast was in a completely different spot, and the Marne and Vlie may have provided part of the route.)  Ludingakerk became one of the richest monasteries in Friesland. The area west of Almenum, became more important and turned into the city of Harlingen. In the 13th century the wooden building was replaced by a stone church with a hall with twin aisles.
  Somewhere between the 10th and 12th century the old wooden building was replace by one made from tufa with a tower.
  In 1234 AD Harlingen was recognised officially as a city near to the west of Almenum.
  On 14 December 1287, the devastating St. Lucia's flood permanently altered the landscape creating the Zuiderzee and bringing the Wadden Sea coast to Harlingen, and thereby giving it the opportunity to become a seaport. Nearby villages Berdingadorp, Medumwart, Dikesherna and parts of the Gerbranda estate lands were lost due to sea encroachment. The church at Berdingadorp was merged with the church at Almenum.
  Schelte Roorda beat Douwe Edes Gerbranda to death in 1453 in Bolsward, and sought sanctuary in the Almenum church. However he was slaughtered in a revenge killing by Herring of Woldens and Bonne Bonninga. Ede Douwez Gerbranda belonged to the Vetkopers
  At a later point, perhaps somewhere between 1200 and 1500, an inscription in the St. Michael's church stated that the bones of Magnus of Anagni, Martyr and Bishop were transported from Fondi to the church at the time of a Saracen invasion in Italy. The inscription was certainly real, but the story it gave, may not be.
caption: By 1649 the Cathedral of Almenum is enclosed in the Harlingen city walls, seen in the clear patch in the southeast of the city.
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