HEERENVEEN

gemeente (commune), Friesland provincie, northern Netherlands. Founded in 1551, Heerenveen ("Lords' Peat Bog") was at first a peat-cutting town. Now industrialized, it manufactures machinery, buses, plastics, and bicycles. It has a 17th-century town hall and a museum of bicycles and motorcycles. Nearby is the Oranjewoud, a small wooded park, once the possession of the house of Orange-Nassau. Pop. (1986 est.) 37,304.