Historical Centre of Leeuwarden

The Historical Centre of Leeuwarden (HCL) is the documentation and activity centre for the history of Leeuwarden and surroundings. The HCL can be considered the local heritage institute and collects, preserves, and presents local historic information. Thousands of meters of historic documents, with information from the middle ages until today, are being preserved here and made accessible to the public. Everyone who wants to do research into the history of Leeuwarden, or its early inhabitants, are welcome at the HCL. Our expert staff helps visitors to find their way in the archives, civil records, drawings, newspapers and many other sources.
Besides our archives, the history of Leeuwarden has been documented in various publications and images. Those are available in our library and in the digital heritage data of the HCL. The library contains several thousands of books and magazines, building plans, printed matter and the back volumes of the local newspaper 'Leeuwarder Courant' from 1752 on. The digital image bank consists of hundreds of thousands of historic photos, negatives, technical drawings, pictures and cityplans. There's also a small film collection included. A special part of the image bank is the documentation of the second world war, the 'De Roos' collection. Among other material, there is a vast collection of war propaganda that can be found in the HCL digital image bank and Image Bank WW2 as well.

www.historischcentrumleeuwarden.nl