FRANEKER, a town of Holland, province of Friesland, is situated. 10 miles W. of Leeuwarden, on the canal between that town and Haarlingen. The university founded here in 1585 was abolished by Napoleon I., and its endowments were diverted in 1815 to the support of an athenaeum, and later of a gynmasium, with which a physiological cabinet and a botanical garden are connected. Franeker also possesses a very fine observatory. The university buildings are occupied by an asylum for insane. The chief industries of the town are silk-weaving, woollen spinning, and shipbuilding. Population in 1876t, 6643.