Leeuwarden (Ljouwert in Frisian) is the capital of Friesland, the northernmost province of the Netherlands, and one of the Netherlands' smaller but more characterful provincial capitals. The city sits in the middle of a flat landscape of polders, canals, and farmland, and its compact historic centre — a grid of canals flanked by tall brick gables — has the feel of a Dutch city that most tourists never reach.
The most famous building in Leeuwarden is not its cathedral or its town hall but the Oldehove: a medieval church tower that was built askew, never finished, and stands in the middle of the city leaning at an angle that outdoes Pisa. It can be climbed. Next to it, the Fries Museum is one of the best regional museums in the Netherlands, with a collection spanning Frisian history, silver, and a substantial section devoted to Mata Hari — Margaretha Zelle — who was born in Leeuwarden in 1876 and became the most celebrated spy of World War I.
The city was named European Capital of Culture in 2018, which brought significant investment in museums and cultural facilities. M.C. Escher was also born here in 1898; he grew up in the building that now houses the Princessehof ceramics museum, which holds a small room of his prints. The statue of Us Mem ("our mother") — a bronze cow — stands near the Oldehove as an emblem of Frisian agricultural identity.