Ezinge

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title: "Ezinge" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["westerkwartier-(municipality)", "populated-places-in-groningen-(province)", "former-municipalities-of-groningen-(province)", "artificial-dwelling-hills"] topic_path: "general/westerkwartier-municipality" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezinge" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement"]

Field	Value
name	Ezinge
settlement_type	Village
image_skyline	20090228 Church Ezinge NL 1.jpg
image_caption	Church and its tower in 2009
image_shield	Ezinge wapen.svg
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name	Netherlands
subdivision_type1	Province
subdivision_name1	Groningen
subdivision_type2	Municipality
subdivision_name2	[[File:Westerkwartier vlag.svg
pushpin_map	Netherlands Groningen#Netherlands
pushpin_map_caption	Location of Ezinge in the province of Groningen
coordinates
area_footnotes
area_total_km2	0.59
elevation_footnotes
elevation_m	0.7
population_as_of	2021
population_footnotes
population_total	675
population_density_km2	auto
timezone	CET
utc_offset	+1
timezone_DST	CEST
utc_offset_DST	+2
postal_code_type	Postal code
postal_code	9891
area_code_type	Dialing code
area_code	0594
::

Ezinge ( or ) is a village in the Dutch province of Groningen. It is located in the municipality of Westerkwartier, about 15 km northwest of the city of Groningen. Ezinge is the oldest, constantly inhabited village in The Netherlands and is in archeological context referred to as "the Pompeii of the North".

Ezinge was a separate municipality until 1990, when it was merged with Winsum.

Heritage

The village is a legally protected heritage district within the Middag- Humsterland region which itself enjoys the status of Dutch National Landscape and can be found on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage. The main sight of the village is the early 13th century church which stands separated from its tower. The tower is connected to an old school building. The three buildings are located on an artificial dwelling hill, known as a terp, with the village and pastures around it, covering a quarter and three quarters, respectively, of the slopes. According to the Dutch Museum of National History, Tacitus has been to Ezinge. Whether true or not, both Tacitus and Pliny the Elder wrote elaborately about the terps and the Frisii and Chauci, the people dwelling upon them.

History

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Ezinge.jpg" caption="''Esinge in 't [[Westerkwartier]] van Groeningen'', aquarelle from 1772 by [[Aert Schouman]] (1710-1792)"] ::

Before dikes were built, starting around the beginning of the second millennium, people in the Low Countries, especially in the north, built artificial hills to shelter themselves and their stock from the high tide. Repeatedly over the centuries these hills were reinforced and heightened, often with soil and waste. Cross sections of terps reveal many layers indicating periods of drought, wealth or poverty and even wars and conflagration. At that time before the dikes and later the reclaiming of land, Ezinge was situated on the northern edge of the middle one of the three historical islands of Frisia, now Groningen.

Around the end of the 1920s peat diggers found curious old objects that attracted the attention of archeologist Albert van Giffen. The following decade Ezinge was the centre of attention for archeologists and historians. Van Giffen found evidence for one of the oldest Dutch instances of constant habitation. Among the objects found were 85 farm buildings and 60 outbuildings, most of them with an almost pristine ground plan visible, graves, pottery, bone ice skates, jewelry and tools. Van Giffen learned that the closer he excavated towards the church, the older the objects proved to be. Eager as he was to find even older evidence, he had the church propped and tried to dig under it but soon had to abandon his attempt due to instability of the church. All in all Van Giffen's endeavors revealed that Ezinge was constantly inhabited since 600 BCE and probably earlier, making it one of the oldest towns in Europe. Roman (import-) pottery and artefacts, like a statue of Jupiter, were found, indicating (economic-) relations with cultures far away and a magic wand, indicating pagan beliefs. A golden pommel, closely resembling the one found in Sutton Hoo indicates a close cultural connection to the Anglo-Saxons in Great Britain in the 6th and 7th century CE.

Church of Ezinge

The church was built in the 13th century. It is single-nave, five-sided, closed church with a free-standing tower. A building which was constructed in 1859 and is attached to the tower, is actually not the part of the church.

Location

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/090228_Allersmaborg_Groningen_NL.jpg" caption="The Allersmaborg"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Ezinge,_terp,_ice_rink.jpg" caption="Church of Ezinge on the terp with left excavated terp as pastures and right the natural ice rink, Winter, 2012"] ::

Ezinge is located about 15 km from the city of Groningen and about 9 km from the former municipal capital of Winsum. The Allersmaborg (literally Borg (castle) of Allersma) was built in the 15th century on the banks of the Reitdiep river's meanders for economic and defensive purposes. Together with the nearby Aduarderzijl sluices, it acted as a strategic stronghold during battles in the Frisian civil war, the Eighty Years' War and the Siege of Groningen respectively. The borg was later extended into a manor house.

The village is connected to the provincial highway by a bridge. The Village has a supermarket, a bakery, a pharmacy, a post office, a barbershop, a liquor store and 2 pubs. The "Wierdenland" archeological museum in Ezinge offers an insight in the area's history. Further recreation can be found at the natural ice rink in the excavated terp and the annual Ezinge festival with funfair.

References

"Postcodetool for 9891AA". Het Waterschapshuis.
"Kerncijfers wijken en buurten 2021".
Robert Stiphout "Ezinge: Geheim van de wierden" [[Elsevier (magazine). Elsevier]], 2006.
"KNAW > Publicaties > Detailpagina".
[http://www.xwashier.nl/plaats/ezinge/ Museum of National History] {{webarchive. link. (2013-03-02)
[http://la.wikisource.org/wiki/De_origine_et_situ_Germanorum_%28Germania%29#XXXV Tacitus, 98 De origine et situ Germanorum, book 35,36]
[http://la.wikisource.org/wiki/Naturalis_Historia/Liber_XVI#II Gaius Plinius Secundus maior, 77, Naturalis historia, book 16,2]
[[University of Groningen]], 2010 [http://www.rug.nl/museum/geschiedenis/hoogleraren/giffen]
[[Television in the Netherlands#Regional

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