In Franeker (Friesland) there is a historic building with a very special room: the ceiling of the former living room consists of a planetarium. This scale model of the solar system was built between 1774 and 1781 by wool comber Eise Eisinga. On September 19, 2023, the planetarium was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But what makes this planetarium so special? And what will happen now that it has been given this status? Adrie Warmenhoven, director of the Eise Eisinga Planetarium, talks about the nomination process and future plans.
From combing wool to astronomy
Adrie Warmenhoven has been director and curator of the planetarium since 2001. “The Eise Eisinga Planetarium is the oldest still functioning planetarium in the world. Eise Eisinga built it in his living room in the 18th century. He had to shrink the entire solar system 1,000 billion times to fit it in his living room! This means that one millimeter on the ceiling corresponds to one million kilometers in reality.”
Eise Eisinga was a wool comber by profession and had only completed primary school. Astronomy was his hobby. But the wool comber had studied it so much that he was able to map the entire solar system as a moving model on the ceiling of his living room. The planets up to and including Saturn can be seen on the ceiling. The other planets had not yet been discovered at that time. “All planets move according to reality. The smallest planet, Mercury, takes about three months to orbit the sun. Saturn takes thirty years. In addition, Eisinga has built in all kinds of hands that always indicate the correct date, day, phases of the moon and solar and lunar eclipses. You can’t imagine anything crazy, everything that has to do with the solar system takes place in that room,” says the director. The whole is driven by a cogwork of dozens of wooden wheels and axles, equipped with about six thousand nails and a Frisian tail clock.
20 years in summary
Two years after Adrie Warmenhoven started as director, the UNESCO nomination process started. Actually a coincidence: “During a board meeting, a board member proposed applying for world heritage status. It provides a certain degree of conservation and management to your institution and the planetarium is very unique.” After this side comment, the board started looking at how such a process went. The first step was to bring the planetarium to the attention of the Netherlands. However, the Netherlands was a member of the UNESCO committee during that period and the country did not receive any nominations. After almost ten years of waiting, the Netherlands decided to make a selection of the nine most promising sites from dozens of interested sites: the ‘Provisional List’. “For seven years we were mainly concerned with gaining attention. We officially started drawing up our file in 2010,” Adrie explains. “Unesco has very strict requirements that the file must meet. Naturally, you must describe what makes your site so special, i.e. the outstanding universal value. But there also had to be an extensive management plan. Step by step we came closer to the finish line.” In December 2021, the Dutch Council of Ministers decided that the Eise Eisinga Planetarium file was worthy of world heritage, after which it could be submitted. And in January 2022, the file was handed over to the UNESCO World Heritage Center in Paris. “We actually boarded the train with the file under our arms to hand it over in Paris!” After another desktop review, in which 20 countries assessed the file, and a technical evaluation mission at the planetarium, a positive advice was given in July 2023. This meant that the planetarium was given a place on the agenda of the UNESCO congress, where the nominations were assessed.
Congratulations on the nomination
And then the day arrived that Adrie Warmenhoven and his team had been working towards for so long. On Tuesday morning, September 19, the nomination of the Eise Eisinga Planetarium was submitted to the UNESCO Congress. “It was a goosebump moment to hear the explanation of ‘our’ planetarium in a conference center where 195 countries are gathered.” After the explanation there was an opportunity to respond. There was actually no negative review at the planetarium. In fact, Belgium gave a very positive word of support: “They called it a ‘little gem’, which belongs on the World Heritage List.” When there appeared to be no comment by email, the chairman banged the gavel and the Netherlands was congratulated on the new nomination.
Planetarium radar
Press, television and rows
The news of the nomination was immediately picked up by national and international press: “The planetarium was discussed in TV programs such as the NOS and RTL Journaal and Arjen Lubach’s Avondshow, we were on talk shows, including Khalid & Sophie and all the newspapers did extensive report of the nomination.”
And it immediately became a lot busier at the planetarium. “In theory, we had already prepared ourselves for the crowds. Of course it is difficult to estimate how great the interest will be, but imagine that it will be really busy. How are we going to deal with that? I then looked extensively at other institutions to see how they deal with a lot of interest in a small space.” But even before the nomination file came into the hands of UNESCO, corona offered the solution: time slots. “It became mandatory to work with time slots, which turned out to be a fantastic system. Until then, we simply opened the doors in the morning and people could walk right in. As a result, it was very quiet in the mornings and there was a huge peak later,” Warmenhoven explains. “Thanks to the time slots, the flow became much more equal, giving every visitor the opportunity to admire the planetarium in detail.”
The future of the planetarium
The most important task for Adrie Warmenhoven is of course to maintain the Eise Eisinga Planetarium forever. “With UNESCO World Heritage status, conservation is enormously supported and we have a global reach. You are then expected to convey that UNESCO story well.” In the coming months, Adrie and the team will mainly look at the technical matters: is the influx of visitors changing, should the opening hours be extended and how can we accommodate the large groups that come to the planetarium?
The planetarium will also collaborate with the other world heritage sites in Friesland. “We have some beautiful icons in the province, with land, air, water and the universe. It is an incredibly beautiful story that you can tell specifically for Friesland. And if all of this is within a half-hour drive of each other, that is of course absolutely fantastic!”
2023-10-26 11:45:00
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