Fire fighters in Leeuwarden used a cherry picker to remove a number of bricks which had become loose and were on the verge of falling from the Oldehove church tower.
Translation by Traci White
Omrop Fryslân reports that the loose bricks had been spotted during a decent inspection. The municipality of Leeuwarden commissioned the fire department to remove the bricks in order to ensure that they did not fall out, potentially injuring people below or causing damaged. to remove the bricks in order to ensure that they did not fall out, potentially injuring people below or causing damaged.
The municipality is looking into how the bricks could have come loose and will be seeking advice from experts to see if the entire tower needs to be more closely inspected.
Construction on the crooked, 39-metre-tall Oldehove tower, which is located in the city centre of Leeuwarden, began in 1529 but was abandoned three years later. It was originally intended to be around 120 meters high, but when it was only 10 metres tall, the tower had developed a distinctive lean: the architect had unknowingly built the steeple on the embankment of a terp, an artificial dwelling mound characteristic of the coastal Dutch provinces to spare villages from flooding.
Photo source: Flickr
