The coat of arms of the town of Gouda is a rotated, mirrored version of the arms of the Van der Goude family. Over the course of the fifteenth century it got six stars.

Gouda always came sixth when voting in the States of Holland. Dordrecht was the oldest town and thus the first to vote, followed by the other towns in order of age. Gouda was the sixth town of Holland, so over time the town council decided that the town’s arms was to feature six stars rather than two stars. It was not until 1816 that the arms that we know today (a pale down the middle, a crown of thorns and three stars on each side) was officially validated by the High Council of Nobility.

However, already in 1577 the castle was ordered to be pulled down by the officials of the town. The wilful town of Gouda did not want to take the risk of it being occupied by the Spanish. There was also another highly political motivation: to become more autonomous from the States of Holland.

One town wall still stands and you can also see the thick walls of the castle in the masonry in the Houtmanplantsoen and parts of the underground passageways beneath the houses in this location. And when you look at Windmill 't Slot and the beautiful buildings next to it, with a bit of imagination you can see the old castle standing in this place again ...

She married, among others, John IV, Duke of Brabant. Later they fell out and he mortgaged her domains to her uncle John of Bavaria. She also married Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, an enemy of Philip the Good.

When her uncle John of Bavaria passed away, the domains in Holland came into Philip the Good’s possession again. Consequently, Jacoba and the Hooks went to war against him in the area around Gouda, Oudewater and Schoonhoven, which is now known as the Green Heart of Holland. In September 1425 Jacoba managed to capture Schoonhoven and she won a battle at the Gouwe Lock.

Jacoba moved into the Castle of Gouda, where she continued the war against the Cods in Holland, a war she would never win. In 1428 Philip was named as her heir. She was forbidden to marry and was in fact rendered powerless. In 1433 she gave up the war and renounced her rights.

To thank the Militia of Gouda for their support, Jacoba of Bavaria gave them the famous chalice. The chalice is now kept at the Catharina Gasthuis which already existed back then. Today this hospital at Oosthaven houses Museum Gouda.

Photo: Wikipedia.

He acquired what we would now call a fan club, but remained true to the Catholic faith. Still, he would come into conflict with the church many a time, among others, over his book 'The Praise of Folly’ (1509). In this book he mocked the clergy and mankind in general who always act in their own interest. He defended the right to be critical about the Bible and holy texts. He also thought that women should be able to read the Bible too, which was a novelty in those days.

In 1552 the Sint-Janskerk was struck by lightning and burnt down. Rebuilding work commenced under the supervision of Cornelisz van der Ghoude. The Crabeth brothers made the world famous Gouda stained glass windows (Gouda glass). New altarpieces were made for the rebuilt Sint-Janskerk. Gouda was not affected by the Iconoclastic Fury. All the altarpieces had been carefully removed by town officials before the church was handed over to the Protestants. The exhibition of these pieces for the celebration of the 600th anniversary of Gouda marked the birth of Museum Gouda.

In 2016 the Erasmus window, designed by Marc Mulders, was placed in the Sint-Janskerk. The modern window has a different design to the classical depictions in the other windows (click here for more information on this window).

Coornhert was the first to believe that there is a relation between poverty, the social and economic position of people and the crime they may fall into. He campaigned for preparing prisoners during their imprisonment for life after captivity.

Coornhert opposed the persecution of heretics under Spanish rule. However, when the Protestants came into power, he continued to advocate his belief in free will, the goodness of humanity and freedom of religion and conscience, which meant he had to flee again.

After being banned from Delft by the Dutch Reformed Church, he went to Gouda, where there was a lot more freedom. He died there two years later in 1590. A plaque honouring Coornhert has been placed in the facade of a building at Oosthaven located on the site of several long gone houses, one of which was the home of Coornhert.

The defence line runs roughly from what is now the IJsselmeer to the Biesbosch. Gouda lies just on the edge of this line. While some people say Gouda is one of the towns that formed part of the defence line, others do not consider Gouda a proper fortress town like the other towns. For a long time the Old Dutch Water Line and the New Dutch Water Line were the backbone of the Dutch defence system against invasions. It relied on inundating farm land. At first, boats were used to fight off invaders, but increasingly defence works such as forts, bulwarks and bastions were built along the line. The Disaster Year of 1672 took place 400 years after Gouda had received its city rights, so 2022 is also the anniversary of the Old Dutch Water.

Anna Barbara wanted to teach her children herself. To do that, she started writing booklets. When her booklets became a success, she spent more and more time writing. In those days this was very unusual for citizens of Gouda and the Netherlands. Her mother took care of the housekeeping and the strange, wilful Anna Barbara focussed on writing her publications.

Her husband encouraged her work. The French had put an end to the Oranges’ Protestant rule and he did not earn enough as a parson to provide for his family. Anna's books helped the family to survive.

She graduated and became a teacher. Subsequently, she and her daughters opened a girls’ school for pupils from families that could afford this elite school. Anna invested a lot in the children, teaching them what we would now call social studies. She wrote many books, from travel guides to books on history and grammar, and Bible stories for children.

Anna also published the then equivalent of today’s feminist magazine and became editor of the monthly women’s magazine Penélopé. In other words, she was a lady who has earned herself a place on the timeline of Gouda750.

Soon other varieties appeared, using both treacle and syrup, such as the treacle cookies of Adeco and the treacle biscuit of Punselie. Adriaan de Groot (later Wever bakery) started to use the syrup waffle iron in 1860. These waffle irons are still used to bake waffles on a small scale at fairs and markets. Syrup waffles were originally made from scraps of dough, rather than from specially made dough like today. As they were a by-product, they were cheap and affordable for everyone.

For some time now syrup waffle bakers from outside Gouda whose main target market is tourists visiting the Amsterdam area, have been trying to change the name Gouda Syrup Waffle into Dutch Waffle or Waffle of Holland. However, this is a falsification of the historical record. The syrup or treacle waffle is a genuine Gouda invention. Only a handful of the dozens of syrup waffle bakeries still remain.

You can still smell the sweet fragrance of waffles in the town when they are being baked, but it is no longer as prevalent as in the 1970s. Since 2020 Kamphuizen Syrup Waffles are once more being baked at the Syrup Waffle Experience at the Markt. Van den Berg (formerly Van Vliet) continues to bake waffles in the original factory at Lange Groenendaal. Punselie still produces its famous treacle biscuits in Tuinstraat. All firms are open to the public. Markus bakes Gouda syrup waffles in the nearby town of Waddinxveen.

Now, among others, the former synagogue at Turfmarkt and the Jewish Gate of the former Jewish cemetery are a memento of the once flourishing Jewish community. After the relocation of the graves of the Jewish Cemetery at Boelekade to Israel, the gate was re-erected as a war monument in Raoul Wallenbergplanstoen in 1980.

Since 2011 so-called Stolpersteine (‘stumbling stones’) have been placed in front of houses in the town that belonged to Jewish citizens who were deported by the Nazis during the Second World War. The Stolpersteine are being placed in many European towns. They are an initiative of the Berlin-born artist Gunter Demnig. This project in Gouda was realised mainly through the efforts of jazz singer Soesja Citroen.

Stolpersteine

Thank God

their names have been saved
returned to the town
where they lived
the deported

in the street where their house stands
in the pavement where their footstep lies
their lives
and
after their deportation
their no-longer-lives
can be read

read by everyone
who for a moment will stand still
be still

through their names they return

inez meter – town poet Gouda, 2003