Verhildersum is a ''

borg The Borg are an alien group that appear as recurring antagonists in the ''Star Trek'' fictional universe. The Borg are Cyborg, cybernetic organisms (cyborgs) linked in a Group mind (science fiction), hive mind called "the Collective". The Borg ...

'' directly to the east of the town of

Leens Leens is a village in the Dutch province of Groningen. It is located in the municipality of Het Hogeland. Leens was a separate municipality until 1990, when it was merged with Ulrum, Eenrum and Kloosterburen. Brief history Leens is located on ol ...

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

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

. It is now a museum.

Etymology

The name Verhildersum comes from ''Verhildert'', where ''Ver'' means 'woman' or 'noble woman' and ''Hilder(t)'' is a proper name. When this woman lived is unknown. The ending ''-um'' in Verhildersum stands for 'house'.

History

The borg dates, as a ''heerd'' (a word for

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

Gronings Gronings (; gos, Grunnegs or Grönnegs), is a collective name for some Friso-Saxon dialects spoken in the province of Groningen and around the Groningen border in Drenthe and Friesland. Gronings and the strongly related varieties in East Fris ...

), from the 14th century. It became a borg in the 17th century. In 1398 a certain Aylko Ferhildema is mentioned, the same person as Aylko Onsta from

Sauwerd Sauwerd is a village in the municipality of Het Hogeland, Groningen, Netherlands. Until the local government reorganization of 1990 the village was the head of the former municipality of Adorp. The village of Sauwerd is 7 to 10 kilometers away ...

. The surname Ferhildema could indicate that he (had) lived in Verhildersum. It is unknown whether, after Aylko Onsta, other members of the Onsta family lived in Verhildersum, but it is considered highly probable that the Onsta's kept possession of the borg for some time. One clue to this is that the borg was destroyed in both 1400 and 1514 by the city-Groningers (inhabitants of the city

), just like the Onstaborg. However, in between these two battles no mention of the borg is made in official records. In a document mention is made of the reconstruction of the borg after 1514 for the sum of 1200 gold pieces, excluding some exterior buildings. After the death of the inhabitant Aepke Onsta in 1564, Ecke Claessen is mentioned as the inhabitant of the borg in 1576. Complaints by him are made with regard to troubles caused by

billet A billet is a living-quarters to which a soldier is assigned to sleep. Historically, a billet was a private dwelling that was required to accept the soldier. Soldiers are generally billeted in barracks or garrisons when not on combat duty, alth ...

ed soldiers with their two wives and a child, who reside at the borg due to the

Eighty Years' War The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt ( nl, Nederlandse Opstand) ( c.1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish government. The causes of the war included the Refo ...

. During the war Eylco Onsta flees to

East Frisia East Frisia or East Friesland (german: Ostfriesland; ; stq, Aastfräislound) is a historic region in the northwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is primarily located on the western half of the East Frisian peninsula, to the east of West Frisia ...

, but despite this keeps calling himself hoofdeling of

Wetsinge Groot Wetsinge (English: ''Big Wetsinge'') and Klein Wetsinge (English: ''Small Wetsinge'') are two villages in the municipality of Het Hogeland in the Dutch province of Groningen. The villages are less than half a kilometre apart and are ofte ...

, Sauwerd and Verhildersum. However in reality, in 1587, twenty years after the death of Aepke Onsta, it is arranged in the property settlement that not he alone, but he and his sister Hidde Onsta together become owner of the borg Verhildersum. Verhildersum was then a ''heerd'' (farm) of 150

yoke A yoke is a wooden beam sometimes used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs, as oxen usually do; some yokes are fitted to individual animals. There are several types of yoke, us ...

s (about 75

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s) on which stood 'the old borg'.

Estate

Around the borg lies the Verhildersum Estate of 32

s. In the borg gardens are a

carriage house A carriage house, also called a remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack. In Great Britain the farm building was called a cart shed. These typically were open f ...

, a

farmhouse FarmHouse (FH) is a social Fraternities and sororities in North America, fraternity founded at the University of Missouri on April 15, 1905. It became a national organization in 1921. Today FarmHouse has 33 active chapters and four associate ch ...

, and a

garden shed A shed is typically a simple, single-story roofed structure that is used for hobbies, or as a workshop in a back garden or on an allotment. Sheds vary considerably in their size and complexity of construction, from simple open-sided ones desi ...

Farmhouse

The ''schathuis'' was built originally built in 1833 on the estate of Saaksumborg, a borg which is now demolished. The ''schathuis'' used to be a farmhouse and derives its name from the old Frysian word ''skat'', which means cattle.Gebouw en bewoners
Menkemaborg. Retrieved on 24 January 2014. In 1972, the schathuis was moved to the Verhildersum Estate. From 1994 to 2012, the fine dining restaurant Schathoes Verhildersum of chef Dick Soek was housed in the building.Schathoes
Piloersemaborg. Retrieved on 24 January 2014. The restaurant had one

Michelin star The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of a ...

from 2004 to 2012. Since 2012, the grand cafe 't Schathuys is housed in the building.

Garden

The late-nineteenth-century garden shed is the former 'tramhouse' of the Emmaplein in

Haren, Groningen Haren (; gos, Hoaren) is a town and a former municipality in the northeastern Netherlands located in the direct urban area of the City of Groningen. Haren is a typical commuting municipality with many wealthy inhabitants. It lies on the northe ...

. The borg garden is laid out according to the

golden ratio In mathematics, two quantities are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities. Expressed algebraically, for quantities a and b with a > b > 0, where the Greek letter phi ( ...

with characteristics from the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

and the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

. The garden is also home to a

herb garden The traditional kitchen garden, vegetable garden, also known as a potager (from the French ) or in Scotland a kailyaird, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. It is used for grow ...

, more than ninety types of

rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

s and fifty types of

Clematis ''Clematis'' is a genus of about 300 species within the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. Their garden hybrids have been popular among gardeners, beginning with ''Clematis'' × ''jackmanii'', a garden standby since 1862; more hybrid cultivars ...

. The garden is surrounded by

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

es.

References

* Translated from article on Dutch Wikipedia

External links

{{Commons category, Verhildersum
Verhildersum Manor and Estate
official website Borgs in Groningen (province) Museums in Groningen (province) Rijksmonuments in Groningen (province) Het Hogeland