Bears or Beers is a small village in the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

province of

Friesland Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of ...

.''VUGA's Alfabetische Plaatsnamengids van Nederland'' (13th edition), VUGA, 1997. It is located in the municipality

Leeuwarden Leeuwarden (; fy, Ljouwert, longname=yes /; Town Frisian: ''Liwwadden''; Leeuwarder dialect: ''Leewarden'') is a city and municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 123,107 (2019). It is the provincial capital and seat of the ...

, about 8 km southwest of

.''ANWB Topografische Atlas Nederland'', Topografische Dienst and ANWB, 2005. Bears has a population of about 133 in January 2017. The official name of the village is in Frisian ("Bears"), like all villages in Littenseradiel. "Beers" is the Dutch name.

History

It was first mentioned in 1305 as Beerse, and means "fenced off hunting area". Bears is a ''

terp A ''terp'', also known as a ''wierde, woerd, warf, warft, werf, werve, wurt'' or ''værft'', is an artificial dwelling mound found on the North European Plain that has been created to provide safe ground during storm surges, high tides an ...

'' (artificial living hill) village. The Protestant church of Bears dates from the 13th century. The Uniastate was a ''

stins A stins (Dutch, pl. ''stinsen''; from West Frisian ''stienhûs'' utch ''steenhuis''"stone house", shortened to ''stins'', pl. ''stinzen'') is a former stronghold or villa in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands. Many stinsen carry the name ...

'' of the Unia family. The estate was demolished in 1756, and only the gate house has remained. A steel framed replica of the estate was built in the 1990, and has an observation tower in the middle to view the landscape. Before 2018, the village was part of the

Littenseradiel Littenseradiel () is a former municipality in the northern Netherlands, known in Dutch as Littenseradeel (). The municipality was formed on 1 January 1984 by a merger of the former municipalities Baarderadeel and Hennaarderadeel. On 1 January 2018, ...

municipality.

Notable buildings

* The Protestant church of Bears

Gallery

File:20190419 Uniastate2 Bears.jpg, Sculpture of the former Uniastate File:20190515 Zicht op Bears2.jpg, View on Bears File:20190419 interieurMariakerk2 Bears.jpg, Inside the Maria Church File:Beers Poortgebouw 0177.JPG, Gate house of Uniastate

References

External links

Leeuwarden Populated places in Friesland {{Friesland-geo-stub