The Spitkeet
Harkema
The museum shows the development from primitive living in sod huts and cave dwellings to living in simple stone houses, called forest houses. Other exhibits include a poorhouse and a chicken house. With nice terrace and playgrounds.
Take a look
Spitkeet is another word for plaggenhut. In the open-air museum and theme park, you can experience how people on the Frisian and Groningen moors lived, lived and worked in the period 1850-1950. People were very poor and conditions were miserable.
The museum shows the development from primitive living in sod huts and cave dwellings to living in simple stone houses, the so-called forest houses. Other exhibits include an almshouse and a chicken coop house, and a poor man's cemetery.
The Spitkeet renewed with introduction film and audio tour
Meet Jelle Dam who grew up in a spitkeet and later stood up for the poor on the moors. And see Sjoerd út de Wâl who lived in a hollow house and earned his living by chipping stones. And most impressive is surely the story of Froukje Postma. She grew up in almshouse de Malmoune, a house recreated in the museum park. Froukje's family consisted of father, mother and six children and lived in one of the poorhouse's small rooms. Day in and day out, both summer and winter, she walked barefoot. She did not have a decent coat and underwear. A hot meal was out of the question. All this can be seen in the introductory film and listened to via the audio tour.
At De Spitkeet, there is a 'resting point' where hikers and cyclists can rest during a walking or cycling tour. There is also a TOP (Tourist Transfer Point) at the open-air park.
