Mission Statement: to assist the integration of foreign residents living in Spain and this is never more accurate than when you establish yourself as a foreign resident in a new country Being able to quickly familiarise yourself with the culture and customs can help ease the transition during a challenging time This is why Euro Weekly News makes it our mission to provide you with a free news resource in English that covers both regional and national Spanish news – anything that we feel you will benefit from knowing as you integrate into your new community and live your best life in Spain you can forget about translating articles from Spanish into awkward English that probably don’t make much sense Let us be your convenient and essential guide to all things that will likely affect you as a foreign resident living in Spain Approximately 70,000 people fell victim to the “witch hysteria” that seized Europe and the New World between the 15th and 17th centuries Even today “witch hunt” will describe the pursuit of people who are deemed to be politically or socially dangerous Three feminist campaigners – Susan Smit, Bregje Hofstede and Manja Bedner – founded the the National Witches Monument foundation in 2023 and plan to set up a monument to the women who were tortured Official records show that 248 were put to death in the Netherlands over the centuries but it is impossible to know exactly many people were killed and the people who succumbed to torture during interrogation are often not recorded at all hundreds of their names are known,” the webpage says The three campaigners have now raised €35,000 and are asking the public to help them decide where they believe the monument should be located Oudewater and ‘s Heerenberg (Montferland) have put themselves forward To Roermond goes the unwelcome distinction of having put 89 women to death but Oudetwater is a strong candidate as the accused had a fairer deal there than in many other towns or cities Those accused of witchcraft at least had chance to prove their innocence as the town had a royal dispensation to issue certificates of innocence if the alleged witch’s weight matched their body mass proving they were too heavy to fly on a broomstick The weighing mechanism can still be seen the Museum de Heksenwaag (Witches Museum) in Oudewater which was one of the 20 towns that commemorated the National Witches Monument Foundation’s Action Day last June by laying white roses in places that had executed witches in the past the Oudewater’s museum said the town would be an ideal site perhaps they didn’t take care of their surroundings,” Van de Wee told the media “Maybe they had a very strong personality and stood up for themselves or simply knew a lot about herbs and how to heal,” she said going on to refer to the witch-hunts that still occur “You can disagree with others but you should not judge them Subscribe to our Euro Weekly News alerts to get the latest stories into your inbox Euro Weekly News is the leading English language newspaper in Spain by delivering news with a social conscience we are proud to be the voice for the expat communities who now call Spain home With around half a million print readers a week and over 1.5 million web views per month EWN has the biggest readership of any English language newspaper in Spain The paper prints over 150 news stories a week with many hundreds more on the web – no one else even comes close Our publication has won numerous awards over the last 25 years including Best Free Newspaper of the Year (Premios AEEPP) Company of the Year (Costa del Sol Business Awards) and Collaboration with Foreigners honours (Mijas Town Hall) All of this comes at ZERO cost to our readers All our print and online content always has been and always will be FREE OF CHARGE Download our media pack in either English or Spanish In the small Netherlands town of Oudewater there is a historic weigh house not unlike a number of similar buildings around the Netherlands except this one is known primarily for weighing witches A weigh house was a common feature of medieval townships used as a central site where people could come to weigh their crops and livestock they also became the perfect spots to subject the accused to a witchcraft test Witches were thought to be light enough to float on water was to put the accused on the weigh house scale and see the results They were generally rigged and countless innocents burned or drowned thanks to the superstitious test The weigh house in Oudewater was a bit different as it was said to have been approved as a fair weighing site by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V no one is thought to have gone to the stake from its scales and the witch weights didn't begin being tabulated until the 16th century Today the weigh house is a museum devoted to the site's history receiving certificates that prove they are not witches If only so many of history's weigh houses could have had such fun programs.  In the town of Oudewater not far from the city of Utrecht available by public transportation This small museum celebrates the history of the Ouija board and its connection to the city of Baltimore The excellent Swiss museum of witchcraft is led by a modern witch One of the best preserved Tudor public buildings in Britain was once used for witch trials One of the city's oldest pubs displays a skull said to belong to the country's last witch burned at the stake A collection of witchcraft artifacts and occult paraphernalia started by the leader of the Long Island Coven The last woman executed for witchcraft in Europe is remembered in this Swiss museum An eccentric collection of antique items shares space with a prop-quality witchcraft museum The world's largest collection of witchcraft regalia Photo: Rumex12/Wikimedia Commons/Creative Commons Atlas Obscura on Slate is a blog about the world’s hidden wonders. Like us on Facebook and Tumblr, or follow us on Twitter In the small Netherlands town of Oudewater there is an historic weigh house not unlike a number of similar buildings around the Netherlands except this one is known primarily for weighing witches they also became the perfect spots to subject the accused to a witchcraft test and the witch weights didn’t begin being tabulated until the 16th century Today the weigh house is a museum devoted to the site’s history If only so many of history’s weigh houses could have had such fun programs Submitted by Atlas Obscura contributor brickhound For more on the Witches Weigh House, visit Atlas Obscura! Design by Studio Piet Boon VIEW GOOGLE MAPS escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox Daven Wu is the Singapore Editor at Wallpaper* he has been covering Singapore and the neighbouring South-East Asian region since 1999 and travel for both the magazine and website He is also the City Editor for the Phaidon Wallpaper* City Guide to Singapore you arrived on the registration page for the Taste of Time event in the Netherlands is organized by MONOCHROME and Reijersen Jewellers Reijersen Jewellers in Oudewater (you can only pronounce this when you’re a Dutch native) is the official retailer for Christiaan van der Klaauw And they excel as a gastronomic jeweller… great food & drinks are guaranteed more than ten independent watch brands will be present to show their watches and to explain everything about the brand and to answer any questions you might have for them Besides Reijersen’s “own” brands (Angelus Holthinrichs and Dunselman Watches will be there and we will get back to you with more details Thousands have been raised for site to commemorate victims of Satanic panic in 15th to 17th centuries Three feminist campaigners in the Netherlands want to reclaim the insult “witch” and recognise the innocent victims of Dutch witch-hunts from the 15th to the 17th centuries with a national monument Susan Smit, Bregje Hofstede and Manja Bedner, the chair and board members of the National Witches Monument foundation, have raised €35,000 (£29,000) for an official site of memory for about 70,000 people who died during a Satanic panic that swept Europe and the Americas “It’s about creating more awareness around this history of, basically, femicide,” Hofstede said. “To this day a witch is still a comic figure. In the Netherlands, every year at the carnaval people burn effigies of witches … but there’s hardly any knowledge of the actual history of people being burned at the stake.” The historian Steije Hofhuis, who is publishing a book on the European witch-hunts said it was a time when the masses really believed that others – generally “weak” women – were consorting with the devil and causing chaos “People were genuinely panicking about the witch,” he said “It was widely thought that the end of time was nigh … and horrific witches were very dangerous You could say it was a big conspiracy theory that the devil was cooperating with people to ruin Christian communities and the way it spread was like a cultural virus.” It is skated over in the Dutch historical “canon” of 50 events taught to all children. It is one of the “shadowy” areas that some politicians want to teach explicitly, and a revelation to schoolchildren who visit Museum de Heksenwaag in Oudewater View image in fullscreenThe heksenwaag (witches scales) in the Weighing House in Oudewater. Photograph: Maurice Savage/AlamyIsa van der Wee, the museum’s director, believes Oudewater would be an ideal site for the monument as it actually protected the victims, typically women and minorities maybe they didn’t take care of their surroundings maybe they had a very strong personality and stood up for themselves pointing out the witch-hunts still happening on modern social media “You can disagree with others but you should not judge them … and that’s a message for all times.” In Roermond, which has formally recognised the injustice done to victims of its witch trials as “a dark page in the city’s history” has briefed councillors that a monument could help with awareness of modern-day issues such as femicide and violence against women Free weekly newsletterThe most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment “On paper, women’s rights are often well regulated, but in practice gender inequality regularly occurs,” said a spokesperson for the institute. “This is often due to persistent traditional and stereotypical views on women’s position in the private sphere and in society.” For Hofstede, more awareness of the people, mostly women, who were put to death as witches is not just about restoring past honour. “Culturally, ideas haven’t changed that quickly in just a few centuries and we’re still dealing with some of the thinking that went on back then, right now,” she said. “This cultural unease with powerful women is for me the big theme linking these historical witch-hunts and the way we treat women today … And the witch can be a figure of warning.” 2020 Oudewater's weigh house with the stepped gable roof Photo: Ben Bender via Wikimedia CommonsOudewater’s weigh house with the stepped gable roof Photo: Ben Bender via Wikimedia CommonsCenturies ago several people accused of witchcraft fled to the small Dutch town of Oudewater in search of justice The fates were sealed in what is now one of the oddest museums in the Netherlands Oudewater is one of the Netherlands’s most charming small towns It is home to a positively fantastic ice cream shop and a stretch of river that runs past several gorgeous buildings that date back centuries Point a camera in any direction and you’re liable to wind up with a photograph that would look great on a postcard But along the lane that serves as its main drag there is a museum containing a historical artifact dating back to a dark era in European history. Museum de Heksenwaag is located inside an old weigh house whose scales were once used to estimate the weights of various goods and livestock as well as the innocence of people accused of witchcraft you can still step on the scales yourself and go home with a certificate that officially states you’re not a witch Anyone who has ever had to read Arthur Miller’s The Crucible for a class or sneakily made do with the film version starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder can recall what happened to folks suspected of witchcraft in New England centuries ago Massachusetts still draws around a million visitors a year Less well known are the fates of those who found themselves in the same situation here in Europe It was a charge that could lead to imprisonment As many as 50,000 people were executed for witchcraft in Europe between the 14th and 18th centuries and not all of them were women Around 20% of those declared guilty were men those accused sometimes resorted to desperate or downright bizarre measures to clear their good names it was determined that one of the supposed traits of witches was that they were so preternaturally light they could fly around on broomsticks Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was ruling over a sizable chunk of western Europe when he passed through what is now the Netherlands According to a story that should very much be taken with a grain of salt he was reportedly asked to participate in a witch trial in the village of Polsbroek The local magistrate decided that the woman accused had a suspiciously low body weight Before an angry mob could tie her to the nearest stake Charles suggested that they use the reliable scales at the weigh house in nearby Oudewater to double-check The woman diligently stepped on them and was declared too hefty to be a witch The charges were dropped and she was free to go The kindly weigh master operating the scales also refused to accept payment for his services Charles V was so impressed he gave the weigh house exclusive rights to weigh any further suspected witches within the borders of his empire While historians have obviously been unable to confirm the full veracity of this story the Oudewater scales were used to weigh at least a dozen alleged witches in the years that followed and never found anyone heavy enough to be a witch People came from as far away as Hungary to be weighed and were given certificates they could take back home to prove their innocence The penalty of death for witchcraft was banned in the Dutch Republic in 1614 but that didn’t mean the accused didn’t face other potential punishments The scales were occasionally used for these witchy weigh-ins until as recently as 21 June 1729 That is when Claas van den Dool and his wife Neeltje Kersbergen stepped on them ‘They came to the weighhouse because Claas wanted to become an alderman in nearby Noordeloos,’ said Isa van der Wee the director and current weigh master at the museum ‘But the rumours that he had something to do with witchcraft had to end first.’ A handwritten copy of their certificate is currently on display at the weigh house which was gradually converted into a museum in the years following World War II there’s much more to be learned about the people who travelled to Oudewater in search of justice They’re the same ones that were first hung in the building in 1482 and later helped clear the names of the accused They may also help the museum become a Unesco World Heritage Site but it could be a few more years before a decision is made Former Dutch queen Juliana stepped on them during a visit in 1952 Other notable visitors have included mayors and various American and German ambassadors A few couples have even been married in the weigh house over the years One returned and celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at the museum in 2018 about 15,000 visitors come to the museum,’ said Van der Wee ‘These visitors come from all over the world to experience what it is like to be in the weigh house and to obtain a ‘Certificaet van Weghinge’.’ These certificates are written in 16th century-style Dutch and make a great souvenir We could not provide the Dutch News service without the generous support of our readers Your donations allow us to report on issues you tell us matter and provide you with a summary of the most important Dutch news each day Many thanks to everyone who has donated to DutchNews.nl in recent days We could not provide this service without you Please help us making DutchNews.nl a better read by taking part in a short survey Memory of the NetherlandsWitches were believed to be light enough to ride broomsticks and were therefore thought to be lighter than a Bible most town centers had stations called weigh houses where traders and sellers measured their crops or livestock before taking them to market But as the witch hunt craze swept across the continent at the turn of the 17th century these weigh houses were used to weigh the wicked The basis for this witch test rested in the widespread lore that witches rode around on broomsticks and could float on water This meant that a witch had to be relatively lightweight if the accused was found to be lighter than a stack of Bibles then they must be a practitioner of black magic But even if the accused was able to pass the weight test executioners were often bribed to skew results Many innocent people found themselves declared guilty based on this test method was once considered to be a “fair weighing site,” a title that was bequeathed by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V the Holy Roman Emperor witnessed an unfair witch weighing test at a nearby village bertknot/FlickrVisitors can weigh themselves at the Museum de Heksenwaag in the Netherlands to see if they pass the witch test A woman who was accused of witchcraft was weighed and found guilty but the emperor could not believe that the woman could be so light He declared the test invalid and ordered the woman to be weighed again in Oudewater which had already built a reputation as a fair weighing site The woman was cleared of her charges and released It is said that the emperor tried to pay the weigh test master for their service impressing the emperor who immediately declared that Oudewater was a fair weighing site The weigh master was then given authority to dispense official certificates that declared test subjects not guilty of being a witch the weigh house still exists and has since been converted into the Museum de Heksenwaag Visitors today are able to weigh themselves and receive a certificate proclaiming that they are not a witch Watches & Wonder is just behind us… and that means a huge number of new watches for us to cover in articles and videos an event where you can get some hands-on time with some of these new timepieces if you didn’t have the time or opportunity to travel to Geneva during Watches & Wonders The event will focus on high-end Independent Watchmakers And there just might be some extra surprises… Like Dutch watchmaker Annelinde Dunselman with her first watch In the small picturesque town of Oudewater Are you in the Netherlands at the end of May and you’d love to attend the Taste for Time event not exclusive to people living in the Netherlands; you’re most welcome if you want to come and since the event is pretty central in the Netherlands Please fill out the form here, and we will get back to you with more details! water analysis institute KWR checked the waste water in eight Utrecht towns and villages for cocaine amphetamines and methamphetamine over the period of a week Among the findings: cocaine and cannabis are not as popular as in cities such as Amsterdam and Utrecht but speed is the drug of choice described by the NRC as a closed community where drugs are not mentioned speed is three times more popular than in nearby Utrecht That has been reason enough for local alderman Ad de Regt to draw up a ‘tough plan’ to tackle drugs abuse within the village Amphetamines are also popular in nearby Lopik ‘Speed is farmers’ cocaine,’ Lopik alderman Johan van Everdingen told the NRC ‘It is cheap and easy to get hold of We are going to disrupt the market.’ The EU’s drugs agency also uses waste water analysis to look at drugs consumption throughout Europe Last year the number of reported crimes in the Netherlands dropped by 8 percent, continuing its declining trend over the past years according to newspaper AD's annual Crime Meter but the Dutch capital is still the most dangerous city to live in crime-wise The AD crime meter takes 10 types of common crime into account Nationwide home burglaries decreased by 14 percent pickpocketing decreased by 13 percent and muggings by 12 percent Amsterdam maintains its number one position for crime rate Overall the city saw a drop in crime equal to the national average There was a decrease in all types of crime in Amsterdam Home burglaries and pickpocketing saw the biggest decreases -15.4 percent and -14.4 percent respectively The rest of the top five most dangerous cities in the Netherlands Gouda (9th in 2015) and Arnhem (5th in 2015) In 2015 Maastricht was the second most dangerous city in the Netherlands The city saw a significant decrease in crime including 40 percent fewer burglaries and 35 percent fewer robberies The top five safest municipalities in the Netherlands are Tubbergen AD attributes the national 8 percent decrease in crime primarily to improvement in larger cities in the country robbery and assault increased in more than half of the smaller municipalities This seems to indicate that criminals in the Netherlands are moving to the countryside as can be seen in the five unsafe municipalities consisting exclusively of cities and the five safest all being countryside municipalities Violent crimes remain the most persistent problem in the country Nationwide violent crimes only decreased by 3 percent compared to the 12 percent decrease in car thefts 167 municipalities even saw an increase in assaults