![\"NR](\"https:\/\/kingdombythesea.nl\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/NR-20-de-groote-meydt_fmt.jpeg\")
In april 2016, it’s exactly 400 years ago a giantess was born in Edam. Trijntje Cornelisdochter Keever – nicknamed the Big Girl – was the tallest woman ever documented in the history of the world. She suffered from a serious growth disorder and eventually grew to the impressive height of 2.57 meters.<\/p>\n
In the Dutch Golden Age, the incredible height made ’the girl giant’ something of an attraction. Trijntje was so tall that a man could stand next to her, stretch his arms up above him, and <\/span>still <\/em>not be able to touch her head.She could clean the gutter on the roof without a ladder.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Trijntje made headlines in 17<\/span>th<\/sup>-century travel guides, and her fame had even reached royal ears. On June 30, 1625, <\/span>the exiled\u00a0King of Bohemia Frederick V and his wife Elizabeth Stuart, Princess Amalia of Solms-Braunfels and their entourage stopped in Edam on their way to England, and the mayor led them to look at the amazing size of the\u00a0shy girl.\u00a0<\/span>By the age of nine she had already reached a height of 2 meters.<\/span><\/p>\n Trijntje\u2019s parents traveled the entire country with their teenage daughter, displaying her to the crowds at fairs. Aged seventeen, she <\/span>passed away<\/span>\u00a0on the road far from home in Ter Veen in Zeeland. Trijntje actually died of lung cancer, which may seem like an unlikely cause of death for a girl her age, but people who have this growth disorder often suffer from a rare form of cancer. A small and painless brain tumor causes an overproduction of growth hormones. However, metastases elsewhere in the body ultimately lead to death. As cancer had yet to be discovered, 17<\/span>th<\/sup>-century people called it \u201cconsumption\u201d because sufferers lost a lot of weight and died slowly.<\/span><\/p>\n The Edam church register recorded that on July 7 1633, Trijntje, daughter of Cornelis, Great Maiden buried in the Great Church in Edam.<\/span><\/p>\n A life-size painting and her original shoes (36 cm) are on display in the branch of Edams Museum, KLM-house No. 20.\u00a0The painting\u00a0depicts Trijntje Keever in full growth in middle-class clothes. On her belt hangs a bunch of keys, to the right she helds a pillow for needles and a case for a knife, spoon and fork. The inscription says that, according to tradition, the portrait of this girl is prettier than she actually was, and that she was likely to suffer from acromegaly.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In april 2016, it’s exactly 400 years ago a giantess was born in Edam. Trijntje Cornelisdochter Keever – nicknamed the Big Girl – was the tallest woman ever documented in the history of the world. She suffered from a serious growth disorder and eventually grew to the impressive height of 2.57 meters. In the Dutch …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,19],"tags":[69,65],"class_list":["post-474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","category-news","tag-museum","tag-urban-legend"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"elizabet_nijhoff_asser_schoen_trijntje_keever_voor_rest\"](\"https:\/\/kingdombythesea.nl\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/elizabet_nijhoff_asser_schoen_trijntje_keever_voor_rest.jpg\")
\u00a0![\"NR](\"https:\/\/kingdombythesea.nl\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/NR-20-Delfts-blauw-huisje-Edam-246x300.jpg\")
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