Explore the North brainstorms and develops its productions in the Westerkerk (Podium Explore), one of the oldest buildings of Leeuwarden. It was built in 1519 as the chapel of the St. Anna Cloister for Beguines.
What are Beguines? Beguines were religious women who were not bound to a particular convent or order. They were relatively independent and free spirits who devoted themselves to various crafts in a sober way, but they also taught people to read and write.
Beguines are possibly named after the founder of the first Beguinage, reformist Flemish priest Lambert de Begue, known as ‘the Stammerer’. Despite that shortcoming, though, he was still an eloquent orator!
After the beguines left the cloister in 1580, the chapel was used for a lot of different purposes. From 1617-1619, it was the home for the Rederijkers in Leeuwarden, which were clubs of amateur poets and literary artists in the North of the Netherlands.
After the Protestant Reformation, the chapel was re-christened in 1643 as the Westerkerk. It was then used as a church for a couple of centuries. It was given a monumental title from that moment on. In 1845, the church was renovated and expanded to include a second nave under architect Thomas Romein. Since 1992, it returned to being a podium for artists under his name: until 2005 as Theater Romein and then until 2016 as Poppodium Romein. As of March 2024, it continues its life as a cultural space as Podium Explore.
The fact that this home of language-teaching cloister-dwellers, who gave their name to a well-spoken stutterer, where reformer poetry and creative writing was practiced, and where The Word was exclaimed and proclaimed — it is a worthy place with a deep history for Podium Explore to become resident of this building and continue that history!
Our gratitude to our neighbor Sipko Dotinga for this story.