The Fryske Akademy is located in linked buildings at the Doelestraat and the corner of the Groeneweg in Leeuwarden. The main building is the stately corner building, the Coulonhûs, situated at Doelestraat 8. It was built in 1713. Various rooms in the building are decorated in the ‘Dutch’ Louis XIV style, with remarkable paintings and woodcarving. You will find some information on the Coulonhûs below. For more details, you may download the Fryske Akademy’s extensive publication on the Coulonhûs.


Some facts on the history of the Coulonhûs:

• The house was named after its first inhabitant, Anthonius Coulon, who had it built in the 18th  century.

• Anthonius Coulon was born in France in 1682. He and his family were Huguenots, and so they fled to Amsterdam at the end of the 17th century. At the beginning of the 18th century, Coulon settled in Leeuwarden as a master builder to the Frisian stadtholders.

• Coulon worked as a master builder for stadtholder John William Friso, his widow 'Marijke-Meu' and their son, who was to become William IV, the first general stadtholder of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.

• Anthonius Coulon had a great influence on the 18th-century architectural style in Leeuwarden and Fryslân, where he introduced the Dutch Louis XIV style of which examples such as the Coulonhûs still remain.

• Anthonius Coulon died in 1749. His work was continued by one of his sons, who worked as a master builder for stadtholder William V. Another son worked as a publisher at the University of Franeker.

Some facts on the Fryske Akademy and the Coulonhûs:

In 1938, the year of its foundation, the Fryske Akademy moved into two rooms of the Coulonhûs. By now, the Fryske Akademy has taken over the adjacent buildings as well.

On the corner of the main building you will see a series of coats of arms (in stone) of Frisian municipalities, the province of Fryslân, German Frisia and the Ottema-Kingma Foundation. All of these contributed substantially to the renovation of the corner building in the fifties of the last century. The large bronze coat of arms of the Fryske Akademy is protected by a swan representing the province of Fryslân. This whole group was a gift from the government.

In 1959, the renovated Coulonhûs was opened up and the rooms were named; several after the Dutch Frisian, East Frisian and North Frisian Islands.