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Enkhuizen (The Netherlands)

Noord-Holland province

by Jarig Bakker, 7 Jun 2003
adopted 8 Aug 1949

Enkhuizen municipality
Enkhuizen flags
Enkhuizen Coat of Arms
Thirteen stripes
Flag from around 1708
Flag from the late 1700's
Flag from around 1800

Other Enkhuizen pages:

VOC Enkhuizen Chamber

See also:

Enkhuizen municipality

Number of inhabitants (1 Jan 2003): 17.069; area: 14,31 km². Settlements: Enkhuizen (seat), Oosterdijk, Westeinde.
Enkhuizen belonged to West Friesland, which was incorporated in Holland in 1289 by Count Floris V. The city was a flourishing fishing port, as reflected by the three herrings on the municipal coat of arms. Enkhuizen was fortified by the Spaniards and was one of the first cities to revolt against them (1572). The city walls were rebuilt in 1600 and the city had more than 50,000 inhabitants in the XVIIth century.
In the XVIIIth century, the port silted up. In 1932, the building of the Enclosuredam (Afsluitdijk) made of the Zuiderzee a lake called IJsselmeer, and ended the maritime activity in Enkhuizen and everywhere else on the former Zuiderzee. The Zuiderzee Museum is a museum-village made of more than 100 houses and workshops brought from the villages formerly located on the Zuiderzee.

A house located Zuiderspui 1 in Enkhuizen shows five coat of arms on its facade: Hoorn, House of Orange, West-Friesland,
Enkhuizen and Medemblik. The municipal arms are also shown on houses located Breedstraat 59 and 81.

Enkhuizen is the birth city of Paulus Potter (1625-1654), who painted a famous bull-calf shown in the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague - De Stier van Potter - (but probably less cherished than dear Us Mem from Ljouwert).
Ivan Sache, 7 Jun 2003

Enkhuizen flags

All flags have been described by Sierksma's Nederlands Vlaggenboek (1962) - [sie62].
The present flag.
Description: Thirteen equally wide horizontal stripes of red and yellow, with in the canton, high 5 stripes, a white square with the municipal arms.
This flag was adopted by the municipal council on 8 Aug 1949.
I have used the Coat of Arms from the Enkhuizen municipal website for an (IMO) improvement on the image from Shipmate.

It is not clear where the colors originated. For there is even another flag with four horizontal stripes of red and blue, with over all a yellow rampant lion (1667, the Napolitan manuscript).
Can we conclude that the last one is the flag of Noord-Holland - and so connect the yellow and red stripes of the Enkhuizer flag with the old arms of Holland: or a lion rampant gules?"

Sierksma in fact depicts the last flag as the flag of Noord-Holland, although the manuscript reads: "Di Enchuze".
Jarig Bakker, 7 Jun 2003

Enkhuizen Coat of Arms

image from the Enkhuizen municipal website.

Granted 26 Jun 1816

Thirteen stripes

by Mark Sensen, 16 November 1996

13 horizontal stripes, red and yellow.
(Source: Dutch atlas made by Delisle in 1739)
James Dignan, 14 November 1996

This flag, without the canton, is very old. On most flagcharts and books it is reproduced, since 1711.
Source: Sierksma's Nederlands Vlaggenboek (1962) - [sie62].
Jarig Bakker, 7 Jun 2003

Flag from around 1708

Shipmate Flagchart : http://www.flagchart.net

Hesman's Vlaggenboek (1708) has a tricolor red - yellow - red.
Source: Sierksma's Nederlands Vlaggenboek (1962) - [sie62].
Jarig Bakker, 7 Jun 2003

Flag from the late 1700's

Shipmate Flagchart : http://www.flagchart.net

There is a flagchart from the second half of the 18th century in the "Amsterdamse Scheepvaartmuseum" with a yellow/red flag.
Source: Sierksma's Nederlands Vlaggenboek (1962) - [sie62].
Jarig Bakker, 7 Jun 2003

Flag from around 1800

Shipmate Flagchart : http://www.flagchart.net

A manuscript dated c. 1800, kept in the "Amsterdamse Scheepvaartmuseum", has a tricolore of red, white, and yellow.
Source: Sierksma's Nederlands Vlaggenboek (1962) - [sie62].
Jarig Bakker, 7 Jun 2003