User:Roger Capybara6/Jacob van Aachen

Oldehove, Leeuwarden

Jacob van Aaken was a Dutch architect. He was an architect of the Leeuwarden tower Oldehove. Presumably he came from the German city of Aachen.

Oldehove

On May 28, 1529, Van Aaken's design for a new church was selected by the city council and he is assigned the position of master builder. According to a copy of the construction contract (original has disappeared), which is now at the Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden, he was paid eightpence a day for this task, a house for the 6 years in which the tower was built and a 'eerlyk niuw kleed' (honorable new dress). Soon after construction, the tower subsided. Van Aaken tried to compensate for this by building straight again on top of the sagging part. Three years after the start of the tower's construction, in 1532, Van Aaken died. After his death the work was continued by Cornelis Frederiks.

Sources

• Stenvert, R. et al. (2000). Monumenten in Nederland: Fryslân, p. 25, 41 and 189–196. Waanders Uitgevers, Zwolle, the Netherlands. ISBN 90-400-9476-4.