The One Terp That Should Have Been Named a Wierde

The Hague, 29 June 2013. On this day, Zwaantje Vink-Brouwer, widow of Piet Vink, together with a delegation of local government officials, re-opened the monument ‘The Terp’ in honour of her late husband. Yet calling this monument a ‘terp’ was a blunder. It outraged the people of the province of Groningen and nearly provoked a breakaway from the Netherlands. The already low trust of the people of Groningen was further reinforced by it. Read below to find out why.

Piet Vink is perhaps The Hague’s best-known post-war alderman—and a socialist. He was born in 1927 in Delfzijl, a poor harbour town in the northeast of the province of Groningen, at the mouth of the River Ems, looking out over the Wadden Sea. From 1970 to 1986, he served as alderman in the city of The Hague, with youth, sports, and recreation as his main responsibilities.

When he retired in 1986, the city honoured him with a small park in the seaside district of Kijkduin, near to the North Sea coast. Officially, the park bears the name Het Piet Vinkplantsoen ('the Piet Vink park'), but locals know it simply as De Terp van Vink ('the terp of Vink'), or more often just De Terp. People of The Hague—the Hagenezen, not the politicians—like to keep things short.

The Terp of Vink was nearly wiped from the map more than once. First, plans for a gas station were shelved. Later, proposals for bungalows were abandoned. And later still, the Terp almost fell victim to a fifty-meter-high apartment tower overlooking the North Sea. It was only thanks to the protests of Kijkduin’s residents that this plan, too, was stopped.

The park survived—but after years on death row, it had been left to neglect. By 2012, the original monument was beyond saving. That year, the city council decided that if the Terp of Vink was to remain, it should at least be made into something worthy. The Terp was redesigned into the park we see today: two small hills with a path winding between them. A year later, as noted, it was formally reopened by his widow, Zwaantje.

Miles Davis meets Piet Vink

It is heartening to see that terps are still being built in modern times, keeping a 2,600-year-old tradition alive and well. We have already noted the terp at Wieringerwerf in the province of Noord Holland, constructed just before the Second World War, as well as the farm dairy De Friesche Terp in Pengalengan, near Bandung in the former Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia). And more recently, of course, there are the eight house-terps in the Overdiepse Polder—with polder meaning 'embanked land'—in the province of Noord Brabant, completed only a few years ago.

The Terp of Vink may be easy to overlook, but the province of Zuid Holland can, in fact, boast of having a terp of its own. Actually, make that two. In the city quarter of Leidschenveen—also part of The Hague—another terp was constructed only a few years ago. On top of this mound, which in its former life served as a dumpsite, now stands a small church: an artwork by Laurens Kolks and Dennis Lohuis. So yes, the two Frisian bastards are more than pleased with The Hague’s city-planning department. Keep it up!

Furthermore, it is encouraging to see that terps are no longer built solely for practical purposes, but as monuments as well—as exemplified by the two terps in The Hague. This gives them not one, but two reasons for existence. In this vein, we also note the plans to erect a terp at the remote archaeological Inca site of Choquequirao, high in the Andes. To explore the sense and, perhaps, the nonsense of this project, see our blog post A Terp for Choquequirao, Peru.

All very nice but in fact The Terp of Vink should have been named 'The Wierde of Vink'

There are many names for artificial settlement mounds. In the province of Friesland, and more recently in the province of Noord Brabant, they are called terp. In the province of Zeeland, the term is werve, while in the province of Noord Holland it is werf, closely related to the Zeeland variant. In the province of Groningen—most important for this blog post—these earthworks are known as wierde.

Across the border in Germany, in the regions of Ostfriesland and Nordfriesland, they are called Warf and Warft, though Wurt is also used. In the region of West Flanders, Belgium, terps exist under various names, including werve, wierde, and stelle. Even in southwestern Jutland, Denmark, the mounds are called værft. Many more names exist, in fact: the coastal inhabitants of the southern North Sea seem to have as much variety in naming their manmade mounds as the Inuit allegedly have for snow—though not quite 200.

location of The Terp of Vink

Piet Vink was born and raised in the province of Groningen, as said, in the port town of Delfzijl at the mouth of the Dollart Bay, where the River Ems flows into the Wadden Sea. This area is part of the larger region of the Ommelanden—an ancient part of medieval Frisia where people lived on artificial dwelling mounds, called wierden. Just mentioning the name Ezinge evokes the history. In this context, the name wierde would have been more fitting. It would have demonstrated historical awareness and greater respect for the inhabitants of the province of Groningen if it had been called a wierde instead of a terp.

By the way, over time, the monument could have been called Vinkwierde, evolving into something like Finkwerd or a local variant, rather than its current name, Het Piet Vinkplantsoen.

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Note — Those who plan to erect a terp, wierde, Warf, etc, themselves, please find here our DIY manual—Making a Terp in 12 Only Steps. For a detailed overview of the phenomenon of terps, see our blog post Between Leffinge and Misthusum—Understanding the Basics of Terps.

Suggested music

Miles Davis, So What (1959)

Further reading

Musterd, P., Een monument voor een wethouder. Part I — IV, blog Haagspraak (2013)

Schroor, M. (ed.), De Bosatlas van de Wadden (2018)

Steijlen, F., Friese koeien tussen de sawa's. Een speurtocht naar Fries melkvee en melkproductie in Nederlands-Indië (2018)

Westerink, B., Wierdenlandschap (2022)