Blauwhuis ( fry, Blauhús) is a village in

Súdwest-Fryslân Southwest Friesland ( fy, Súdwest-Fryslân ) is a municipality in the Northern Netherlands, located in the province of Friesland. It had a population of 84,092 in August 2017. Sneek is the municipal seat. With a total area of 841.56 km2, Sú ...

municipality in the 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 ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. It had a population of around 585 in January 2017.

History

The village was first mentioned in 1718 as 't Blauw Huys, and means "blue houses" after the tiles of the polder office who had been responsible for the 1622 '' poldering'' of the lake Sensmeer. In 1651, a priest was in charge of the polder house and started to invite other Catholics to the area, and developed into a Catholic enclave during the 18th century. Blauwhuis was home to 151 people in 1840. The Catholic St Vitus Church was built between 1868 and 1871 and was designed by

Pierre Cuypers Petrus Josephus Hubertus "Pierre" Cuypers (16 May 1827 – 3 March 1921) was a Dutch architect. His name is most frequently associated with the Amsterdam Central Station (1881–1889) and the Rijksmuseum (1876–1885), both in Amsterdam. ...

. The church replaced a

clandestine church A clandestine church ( nl, schuilkerk), defined by historian Benjamin J. Kaplan as a "semi-clandestine church", is a house of worship used by religious minorities whose communal worship is tolerated by those of the majority faith on condition t ...

in a barn. In 1950, it was awarded village status. Before 2011, the village was part of the

Wymbritseradiel Wymbritseradeel (; official fry, Wymbritseradiel ()) was a rural municipality ( nl, gemeenten) in the Dutch province of Friesland from 1984 until 2011. An earlier type of municipality ( nl, grietenij) of the same name existed from 1500 until 198 ...

municipality.

Gallery

File:20180817 De Freonskip1 Blauwhuis.jpg, Pub in Blauwhuis File:Blauwhuis - Koetshuis Sint-Vitus.jpg, Carriage house File:Blauwhuis plaatsnaambord.jpg, Welcome to Blauwhuis File:20180817 Fole fan Frysk hynder1 door Maria van Everdingen.jpg, Horse statue by

References

Súdwest-Fryslân Populated places in Friesland {{Friesland-geo-stub