Bears, (Beers)-Febuary 2007.

Bears is a very lovely interesting village, has a lot of history and is a very lovely part of Friesland to visit.

It was quite a cold day when we walked in Bears, it had also beenraining the night before, now and again we had grey cloud cover, thenit would become blue, then the sun would burst through the cloud.I tooka lovely photograph just as the sun burst through, it looked like aseam in the clouds was opening and allowing the sun rays to filterthrough.

The sun rays bursting through the clouds.

Bearshas an old Unia-state (fortified stately house), also a small animalfarm, with all sorts of animals, a pig (the most largest pig I haveever seen in my life), also lama's, one with a real fancy hair do...another who looked most emperial..munching away.
A peacock (Pauw in dutch), a turkey,(dutch-kalkoen).It was extremely muddy thank goodness I had my gumboots on.

TopLeft :The pig. Top right: the Lama with its hair do. Center: Thepeacock (pauw).  Bottom Left: The emperial Lama. Bottom right: TheTurkey (kalkoen).

WhatI liked was the picture i managed to capture of the church through theiron model of the Unia-State (built as it used to be).  The Unia-Statewas built on a peace of land,   which had a moet surrounding it, theonly way in was through the gate house.  One can just imagine how hardthis was to cross in the old days with feuds.

The church was built around the 1300's.  The high altar (koor) wasbuilt around the 1400's and the pulpit (preekstoel) and bell tower wasbuilt around 1858.

The furniture which was from the 18oo's is still virtually intact.The pulpit is carved with allegorical figures by E. Swalue in 1759.

In the galerie is a small exposition to see about the church andhill (terp), to be seen, also a libary is available.  In the churchthere are also gravestones to be seen, though some have been damaged.

During the French Napoleionic occupation of Holland the hatredtowards  the Nobelty, caused the distruction and damage of the familycoat of arms,on the gravestones. This was not a spontaneous reactionbut an organised operation.

The bells are from around the year 1569, and above the entrance door is a stone with a cross looking mans head on.

TopLeft :The church taken from the side. Top right:Model of the Unia-stateon its own.  Bottom Left: The church,through the iron model of theUnia-State. Bottom right: The gravel path running round the Unia-State.

Bears falls underthe municipality of Littenseradiel municipality, Fryslxe2n province, thisvillage has nothing to do with the Beers that is in the North-BrabantProvince, (Noord-Brabant province).

Bears (Fries), Beers (Dutch),  used to fall under the formermunicipality of Baarderadeel, in Bears the old Unia-state (fortifiedstately house), of which only the gate remains.

Unia-state played an important part in the medieval feud between the"Skieringers" and "Fetkeapers" (vetkopers), as a  (*) bulwark of theSkieringers; in 1515 it was demolished by the Black Heap, a Geldersband of soldiers of fortune in the service of the duke of Saxony. Itwas rebuilt, but definitely demolished in 1756.

The church, devoted to the Virgin Mary, was built in 1300, enlarged1500, later improved and deproved, and in 1857 the saddle-roof was lost.

Nickname: "Katten" (cats, referring to the unapproachable women in the village).

Bears C.O.A.

Bears : Coat of Arms, (CoA) : in blue a golden gate opened, in the shieldcorners with two facing silver crescents.

Bears Flag.

Flag : blue with a yellow gate, standing on thehoist, connected to top and bottom of the flag; with a stepped gablewith five steps, starting at 2/3 flaglength and ending at 14/15flaglength, and the gate-opening with 8/15 flagheight and 8/15flaglength; in the gate-opening a white turned crescent of 2/5flagheight.

The beautiful gate with the renaissance gable of the formerUniastate is central in both CoA and flag; the crescent is from theUnia-family arms. Gold/yellow and blue are from the Baarderadeel arms.(from Jarrig Bakker. F.O.T.W, Flags of the world).

(*) Middle English bulwerke, from Middle Dutch bolwerc, from bolle tree trunk + werc work.

1 a : a solid wall-like structure raised for defense : RAMPART b : BREAKWATER, SEAWALL
2 : a strong support or protection
3 : the side of a ship above the upper deck -- usually used in plural.

TopLeft : A scenic route. Top right: rail line crossing.  Bottom Left:View of the church,coming back to Bears. Bottom right: The Church,close-up.

Withthis enjoyable and interesting walk, we started to walk back to the carand decided to visit Baard on our next walk.  Till then..