Fransum

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Fransum is an old church village within the municipality of Zuidhorn in the Dutch province of Groningen. The village consists of a 13th century Romanesque church, one house and one farm. It lies on a wierde. Fransum is on the former island of Middag in the Westerkwartier. From Den Ham is a small road to the wierde, of which the last part non-hardened. It is generally assumed that the wierde itself dates from the 5th to 8th century AD. The church had regular services until 1965. The church is nowadays owned by the Stichting Oude Groninger Kerken and is opened for visits in the summer on sundays. There are several readable scriptures on gravestones from the 1670s. At the cemetery are several old, but also newer graves. The western stone wall of the church is covered with tree weed and moss on and between the stone bricks. The poet C.O. Jellema devoted one of his poems to this church. A little south of the wierde, a local farmer handmade his own little church, the church of Harkema. From this church is a bicycle road to Fransum, from where Bessum can be reached by bicycyle from the east and north side.