Hindeloopen

Hindeloopen is an old town on the IJsselmeer in the Dutch province of Friesland, within the municipality of Sudwest-Fryslan. It received city rights in 1225 and joined the Hanseatic League in 1368, and from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries its shippers traded across the North and Baltic seas. Sustained overseas trade contact left the town its own distinctive Hindeloopen language, blending West Frisian with English, Danish, and Norwegian elements, and seventeenth and eighteenth century prosperity from shipping and the Dutch East India Company produced a distinctive local costume and colorfully painted architecture the town remains known for. It had about 875 residents as of January 2017.