Joure
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| Joure | |
 |
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| Country |  Netherlands |
|---|---|
| Province |  Friesland |
| Population | |
| - Total | c. 13,000 |
Joure (West Frisian: De Jouwer) is a town in the Dutch province of Friesland. With 13,000 inhabitants, it is the largest town in the municipality of Skarsterlân.
[edit] History
Joure used to be an outskirt of a village called Westermeer, but soon grew bigger than the original town. Around 1950, the name "Westermeer" was erased from the map, and replaced by Joure. Until the 1950s Joure remained a small-scale village, consisting of only few streets and waterways. From then on it started expanding into several directions.
The town has been renowned since the 18th century for the manufacture of traditional Frisian clocks ('stoelklokken' and 'staartklokken'). In 1753 Egbert Douwes founded a company selling colonial goods, in Joure. His heirs renamed the company to Douwe Egberts and made it a world imperium, mainly focusing on coffee, tea and tobacco. Nowadays many people in this town still have jobs related to DE, even though its headquarters moved to Utrecht decades ago.
[edit] Sister cities
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