Franeker

Franeker, in West Frisian Frjentsjer, is one of the eleven historical cities of Friesland and the capital of the municipality of Waadhoeke, in the north of the Netherlands. It lies north of the Van Harinxmakanaal and about 20 kilometres west of Leeuwarden, and had 13,015 inhabitants in 2023. The article states that it was founded around 800 as a Carolingian stronghold, that it received city rights in 1417, and that it became the main town of the new municipality of Waadhoeke on 1 January 2018. The University of Franeker, founded in 1585 and the oldest in the Netherlands after Leiden, counted Descartes and Peter Stuyvesant among its students until Napoleon closed it in 1811. The Eise Eisinga Planetarium, an orrery built between 1774 and 1781 and now a World Heritage Site, is in the city.