Grootegast

Grootegast (Grodegast; Gruttegast) is a village and former municipality in the northeastern Netherlands. It is the sister city of Kingston, Tasmania. The municipality was merged into the municipality of Westerkwartier on 1 January 2019.

Geography


The former municipality contained the population centres: Doezum, Enumatil, Faan, Grootegast, Kornhorn, Lutjegast, Niekerk, Oldekerk, Opende, Sebaldeburen. In some of these villages, they still speak the West Frisian language.

History
The village originated around the year 1000 (as Majorgast) and was profiled from 1400 onwards as the counterpart of Lutjegast. The village contains a 17th-century church, the so-called Witte Kerkje ('Little White Church'). This church was restored in 1829.

Grootegast was the main village of the former municipality. The name of the village refers to a gast or gaast, a higher, sandy ridge in an otherwise swampy area. Groot is Dutch for 'large'.

Dialect
The Grootegasters dialect, or Westerkwartiers, is clearly a borderline case. Linguistically, the influences of three provinces are noticeable: the dialect is a variant of Gronings, but in terms of intelligibility it is more like Drents; however, the accent and grammar sound rather Frisian, which can be explained by the fact that almost all of Lutjegast still spoke Frisian 100 years ago. Being a border village of Lutjegast, Frisian influence is still noticeable today in the number of villagers of Frisian origin and the many business and social contacts with Friesland.

Notable people

 * Cornelius Van Til (1895–1987), theologian
 * Ron Groenewoud (1937), football player