The oldest mention of Vriezenveen dates from 1364, when Evert van Hekeren, lord of
Almelo, wrote a charter for the free Frisians, their heirs and all the people who lived on the moor, from the
Wierdense Weuste to the
Bawesbeek. The people who lived on the moor were obliged to pay one bucket of butter a year, measured according to the standard of Zwolle, on
St. Martin's Day at Huis Almelo. This concerned a lease of butter and was paid in kind; the lease could not be bought off. The lord of Almelo had allowed the free Frisians to colonize the moor above his land.
Almelervene, as Vriezenveen was called before the 15th century, was created from forty farms, roughly stretching from the current Schipsloot to the later excavated
canal of Overijssel. Each farm had a width of sixteen fields (16 × 7 is 112 metres). To the east of the settlement, up to the Bawesbeek, an area remained, the so-called
Oosterhoeven. This area was not divided and it is rumored that it was possibly the joint property of the residents. To the west of the settlement, there too was a similar area of undivided ground from the Boerstege to the Stouwe. These were the
Westerhoeven and
Woesten. It is rumored that these lands were also joint property. The Almelervene settlement grew; by the
mid-15th century, the village had already changed so much that the various farms were no longer sixteen fields wide, but were reduced to ten, or even eight fields wide. The German bishop from
Münster,
Bernhard von Galen, aptly nicknamed
Bommen Berend (English:
Bombing Bernard), plundered and robbed
Twente around the year 1665. Vriezenveen was spared until 1665, because it was surrounded by swamp and bog. There was only one road to Vriezenveen and it was guarded by troops of the
Dutch States Army. However, there was a harsh winter in the year 1666, which froze the moors and the surrounding swamp. The road to Vriezenveen lay open and in January 1666, 1500 riders of the bishop's army rode into Vriezenveen. The village was looted and the houses and the church were set on fire. A large number of people were killed and the rest were taken prisoner. The new Vriezenveen was not rebuilt on the Buterweg, along which it had previously lain. It was instead rebuilt on a sandy road to the north, the present village street. This rebuilding took place at a rapid pace and at the beginning of the 18th century the old Vriezenveen on the Buterweg was a thing of the past. Only the old cemetery of this old Vriezenveen has been preserved. The village is now characterised by a 6.2-kilometer long built-up village street (from west to east: Hammerweg, Westeinde and Oosteinde) with characteristic facades on the houses. The special
Engbertsdijksvenen, a partly still living biodiverse raised bog complex with its rare flora and fauna, is a reminder of what the area looked like, before the intensive colonisation of the area by the lord of Almelo and his subjects was set in motion. Quite a lot is known about the last magistrate (Dutch:
Schout) and first Mayor of Vriezenveen,
Jan Kruys, because his detailed diaries from the period 1817-1830 have been preserved.
Religion During the
Reformation, which also permeated Twente, most of the Vriezenveners "switched" to
Protestantism. In the 19th century the conservative orthodox
Calvinist Protestants became the majority. A Vriezenvener, Jan Machiel Krijger, (1874–1951) took part as a party leader in the
1946 Dutch parliamentary elections on behalf of the
Protestant Union. The former
CHU member obtained 32,020 votes. To this day most Vriezenveners are either
Dutch Reformed or
Reformed, as can be seen in their support of the
SGP and the predecessors of the
ChristenUnie, the
RPF and the
GPV. However, a strong Catholic minority remained on the eastern side of the village. This
Roman Catholic community was able to inaugurate its own parish church in the early 20th century. The church and parish are dedicated to the Roman Catholic saint
Anthony the Great. Until the
Second World War, there was a Jewish community in Vriezenveen. In 1878, the Vriezenveen synagogue, ''Mikdash Me'at'' (small shrine), was built, after the
King's commissioner P.C. Nahuijs, by
Royal Decree of December 2, 1876, granted a government subsidy of 850 guilders to the local Israelite Congregation for its construction. The synagogue was completed in 1879. The community then numbered 27 people. In 1906, the Jewish community became part of Almelo, and in 1923, the building was sold. The building is still intact and has been listed as a municipal monument since 1996. The former synagogue has been a warehouse of a private company since 1973, but the building is scheduled to be demolished.
Trade The inhabitants of Vriezenveen (
Rusluie) had a lively trade with the
Russian city of
Saint Petersburg in the period from 1720 to 1917. Over the course of time, various companies from Vriezenveen founded trading houses and shops on notable streets and in notable buildings, such as on the
Nevsky Prospekt and in the adjacent "
Gostiny Dvor".
Hendrik Kruys was the owner of trading house 'Java' at Grosse Morskaya 38 in Saint Petersburg. Although they managed to acquire a permanent place in the grand city at the mouth of the
Neva, many Vriezenveners eventually returned to their hometown. On May 16, 1905, there was a great fire in Vriezenveen that almost destroyed the entire town. After the fire,
Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry – her prince-consort – formally known as
Duke Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, personally came to support the residents of Vriezenveen. They made a personal donation of no less than a thousand guilders, intended for the reconstruction of Vriezenveen. The fire was commemorated in 2005, with a parade of historic fire-fighting vehicles. The
Jansen & Tilanus company was spared during the great fire. The textile factory was the largest employer in the town at the time and the fire ended just before the factory on the Westeinde street. Due to the dryness of the commonly used thatched roofs and the strong winds from the east, there was no stopping the fire. 228 houses, mostly built in the aforementioned style, went up in flames. The richer farms and Rusluie houses made of brick and with greater garden distance from other houses, turned out to be more resistant to the fire and still stand to this day. The most famous of these still-standing farms, is the
Peddemors farm.
The Historical Museum deals with the history of the municipality of Vriezenveen, and of the town itself. There is, among other things, a historical department about the textile history of Vriezenveen and extensive documentation about the great fire of 1905. In addition, an old living room, a farmhouse kitchen and a school class from long ago are on display, which allows people to get a glimpse of life in the past. During the
Second World War, Vriezenveen became the temporary home of many children from
Rotterdam. Contact was made through the Roman Catholic pastor of Vriezenveen, dhr.
Van Rhijn – originally from Rotterdam – and the children were taken care of in Vriezenveen's foster families. On May 1, 2004, the association
Oud Vriezenveen organized a reunion where about a hundred so-called
oorlogskinderen (English:
war children) – mostly from Rotterdam – gathered. The war children, at the time referred to as
bleekneusjes (English:
pale noses), were asked to put their stories on paper, which resulted in the book
Bleekneusjes oorlogskinderen. In April 2006, the first copy of this book was presented to deputy
Gert Ranter by initiator
José Bosch-Höfte, with great interest from many war children. Up until the 1960s, the village did not have elder care, because of a "strong general regional sense of commitment and duty towards helping each other", also known as
noaberschap (English:
neighbour-ship).On December 23, 1960, the Protestant-Christian Foundation
De Vriezenhof was founded. The construction of the retirement home then took five years, on the site where a rectory stood before. == Points of interest ==