Pechtas Castle
Pechtas Castle houses the Parliament of Isselmere-Nieland.
Origins
The etymology of the Castle's name is the subject of some scholarly speculation. Pechtas may derive either from the early Anglo-Frisian word for the indigenous Letheans, itself stemmed from the Old English word for the Picts. Alternatively, the name might arise from a Germanic vegetation and fertility goddess, Perchta or Berchta. The remains of an ancient hill fort as well as possible votive offerings to the deity mean that the true origin of the castle's name might forever be in doubt. The name is not derived from the modern Dutch word for emergency or trouble (pech), despite the statements by some wags and political journalists.
The earliest foundations of the castle — essentially a fortified monastery — and attached buildings date back to the thirteenth-century. Much of the present-day structure is of more recent origin, notably the major reconstruction work undertaken in the mid-fourteenth- and sixteenth-centuries, which itself underwent great change throughout the latter half of the nineteenth-century.
Construction
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