iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

It's the Third Sunday of Lent Go to Mass 👉

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Simon Fokke spent ten years illustrating 'Wagenaars Vaderlandsche Historie', the first systematic history of the Dutch Republic, published between 1749 and 1759 He etched the battles, the treaties, and cities One man that worked quietly for a decade built the visual memory of Dutch history

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Pretzels were invented as a Lenten food They are 100% dairy free The 3 holes represent the Trinity And the crossed arms: a monk in prayer position A 6th century monk baked them as rewards for children who memorized their prayers The most popular Oktoberfest snack is a Catholic penitential bread

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

The hospital was invented by the Catholic Church The first institution dedicated solely to caring for the sick, not just slaves, or soldiers, was built in Caesarea in 369 AD by Bishop Basil of Caesarea Modern healthcare runs on a 4th century bishop's theology of human dignity

010

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

The Waag in Alkmaar contains original cheese weighing scales, a mechanical drum from 1690 still driving the carillon above, and below both, the oak vault of a Catholic chapel gutted in 1583 3 civilisations in one building. Now a tourist trap on Friday mornings 🧀

101

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

The Dutch Republic had 2 million people and produced Rembrandt, Vermeer, Frans Hals, Ruisdael, De Hooch, and Fabritius in the same century Britain had Shakespeare Italy had the Renaissance We had both, in a country smaller than Portugal No empire needed, just merchants who bought paintings

001

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Mohammad Reza Shah confused wealth with power He skied in St. Moritz, collected Lamborghinis, and in 1971 spent $200 million celebrating 2,500 years of Persian monarchy at Persepolis Khomeini offered Persians their identity back, and took his throne 8 years later

001

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

The Big Bang theory was proposed by a Catholic priest Georges Lemaître published it in 1927 When Einstein first heard it, he told him his physics was correct but his theology was wrong 2 years later Einstein admitted Lemaître was right about both

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Dutch scientists in 1715 studied nature to prove God existed Bernard Nieuwentijt catalogued the design of creation, and translated into French, English, and German within 50 years The Dutch Reformed tradition built its apologetics on empirical science We've since handed both to atheists

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

The calendar on your phone was fixed by a Jesuit mathematician Julius Caesar's calendar drifted 10 days over 1,600 years So Pope Gregory XIII commissioned Christopher Clavius to correct it in 1582 You've never missed a birthday because of a 16th century Jesuit.

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

The Catholic Church built Europe's first hospitals Not governments or universities The Hôtel-Dieu in Paris opened in 651 AD Run by nuns, and free to anyone Modern healthcare is secularised Catholic charity But costs you a fortune

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

The Dutch invented the world's first mutual fund in 1774 Not a bank or a government bond But a fund for small investors to pool risk across global markets Abraham van Ketwich called it 'Eendragt Maakt Magt' (Unity Creates Strength) Wall Street runs on a Dutch idea from 250+ years ago

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

Most people sense something has been lost In how things are built In how cities look In how Sundays feel Heritage Standard names what was lost, and finds where it survived COMMUNITY 📲

100

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

I want to go skiing in Iran soon...

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

The Dutch Republic once had the world’s finest carillons. In the 1640s, François & Pieter Hemony cast the first truly tuned bells in history: lathe-cut, overtone-matched, chromatically precise They made entire cities sing in mathematical harmony We not only traded the world, we tuned it too

100

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Willem Dreesmann, owner of the former deparment store Vroom & Dreesmann was 1 of the 3 Dutch men to ever obtain Papal Nobility He was a Papal Count, Secret Chamberlain of Sword and Cloak, and Commander in the Order of Pope Pius IX The world desperately needs more pious Catholic entrepreneurs

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

In 1559, a theologian from Brabant convinced Rome to redraw the ecclesiastical map of the Low Countries Franciscus Sonnius argued bishops needed degrees, not bloodlines He got his dioceses, but his opponents wrote satirical pamphlets against him One later wrote the Wilhelmus

010

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

In 1937, the greatest Vermeer expert alive declared a newly discovered painting the finest he had ever seen Boijmans paid tens of millions for it But it was painted by Han van Meegeren, a bitter man from Deventer told his whole life he was nothing 🧵

100

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Around 1900, twenty-five Wieringer aak boats were used to fish in shallow waters They're flat-bottomed, short, and rigged to tack in passages too narrow for conventional craft A boat specially designed for the Wadden Sea Only 1 survives in active use

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

In 1996, a farmer in Wieringen found 1.7kg of Viking silver in his field Coins, jewelry, silver bars from the 9th century Danish Vikings used Wieringen as a raiding base for over a century In school this subject is ignored completely We wuz vikings and sheet

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

German Crown Prince Wilhelm arrived on the island Wieringen on November 22, 1918 It got global media attention He and his father Kaiser Wilhelm II had fled Belgium after Germany's defeat The Netherlands granted them political asylum Yet Wilhelm integrated a bit too well...

100

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Charlemagne understood that the empire required one lingua franca So he imported the best grammarians in Europe Alcuin from York Theodulf from Visigothic Spain Paul the Deacon from Lombard Italy Dungal from Ireland Their mission: rescue Latin from Merovingian corruption

100

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Jacob van Ruisdael gave two-thirds of every canvas to sky In Netherlands' Golden Age art market, where portraits and still lifes paid, this was a commercial gamble John Constable studied him William Turner copied him The Barbizon School built on him He never left the Netherlands

001

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

The Dutch Republic had no king, and no natural resources Yet built the world's first multinational, first stock exchange, and first modern navy Some countries inherit greatness We engineered it

001

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Herve Cheese has been made in Pays d'Herve since the 15th century Protected, controlled, and still shaped by the red bacteria that settle on the rinds in cellar air Microbiology surviving six centuries Best eaten with Liège syrup

010

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

The war gave modernists the excuse ideology alone never could The 1940 Rotterdam bombing destroyed the city center Planners called it a tragedy But then they went on and now demolished more than 4000 pre-war buildings The buildings the bombs have missed

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Our Lord said: ‘I am THE way, THE truth and THE life’ Not: ‘A way, a truth and a way of life…’ Screw false ecumenism Convert or be damned to hell

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Dutch speculaas is a spiced cookie made with 7 spices -Cinnamon -Nutmeg -Cloves -Ginger -Cardamom -White pepper -Anise Speculaas bakers never shared their spice ratios Not with rivals or in writing Each held different proportions, guarded across generations...

100

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Jan van Riebeeck sailed from Amsterdam to the Cape of Good Hope in 1651 He built a fort, planted orchards, established a supply station for the entire Dutch East India fleet His settlement became South Africa

010

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Pope Pius V was fond of eating snails, and declared: 'Estote pisces in aeternum!' ('May you be fish forever!')

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

Dutch rookworst is smoked sausage made with pork, beef, and bacon fat Cured for days then cold-smoked over beechwood The casing snaps when you cut it

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

The Winter Games might be over, but White Men Winter isn't

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Fr. Sebastian Kneipp forced his parishioners to walk barefoot through frozen rivers in midwinter He was called both a saint and a madman But his penance cured body and soul Now footmassage salons charge €60 for what Kneipp gave as penance Same practice, without the transcendence

100

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

The Eucharistic fast lasted 1,600 years Total abstinence from midnight until Communion 1953: water allowed 1957: reduced to 3 hours 1964: reduced to only 1 hour Modern Catholics can eat just before Mass Spiritual limpness

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

On the First Sunday of Advent we read about Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness... Go to Mass today...

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

We used to be a proper society...

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

I reaaly need one more day on the mountain before spring takes it all away...

100

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

The world used to be a beautiful place...

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

In 1966, the village of Wilmarsdonk near Antwerp was demolished to expand the port Only the church tower was allowed to remain Today it stands in the middle of a container yard This is what the managerial state does: it preserves the stone, yet erases the soul

100

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

In medieval Europe, Saturday was bath day Not at home, but at a bathhouse Bathhouses were the medieval social clubs Paris had 32 of them by the 13th century But the plague ended them Now there's only Groupon sauna resorts for boomers and bathhouses for gays

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Gothic cathedrals were built to make you feel small on purpose The proportions weren't aesthetic choices, but theological ones You were meant to look up and understand your place Office towers only make men feel large Nobody feels awe at anything modern

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

In 1529, Ottoman forces tried to tunnel under Vienna’s walls for a night attack Legend says monks baking pretzels in a monastery basement heard the digging and raised the alarm The city held

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Uitwaaien is a Dutch verb with no English equivalent Literally: ‘to out-blow’ Meaning: to go outside in the wind specifically to clear your head We’ve lived on a flat, windswept delta for a thousand years The wind clears what indoor thinking cannot

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Ramadan focuses on external acts: eating, drinking, smoking It's social conformity Lent focuses on destroying sin and disordered affections through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving Islam polices behavior Catholicism transforms the heart

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

In 1342 the Franciscans were granted custody of Jerusalem’s holy sites They mapped the Via Dolorosa: 14 stops from Christ’s condemnation to burial Most Christians would never see Jerusalem So the Church replicated it in stone across Europe

100

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Jacob le Maire found a route past Cape Horn in 5 days The VOC stole his ship, buried his account, and credited someone else He died sailing home His physician recorded one word: hartzeer Heartbreak

000

Robbert Leusink @robbertleusink.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Calvinism built Dutch commercial culture, but then dismantled the Dutch nation The same theological movement that made the Netherlands exceptional at accumulating wealth made us pathologically uncomfortable displaying it 400+ years of Calvinist guilt 🧵

100