SNEEK, a town of the Netherlands, in the province of Friesland, 18 miles south-south-west of Leeuwarden, with which it is connected by canal and (since 1885) by rail. It is one of the great butter and cheese markets of the country and has communal buildings (1863), a town-house, a court-house, an orphanage, a synagogue, and several churches, in one of which (the Groote or Maartenskerk) is the tomb of the naval hero Lange Pier (Long Peter). The population of the town was in 1870 8456; that of the commune, which numbered only 3253 in 1714, was 9248 in 1870 and 10,496 in 1880.

Sneek appears in the list of Frisian towns in 1268. It was almost reduced to ashes in 1295, and again in 1417 and 1457. In 1515 it was attacked and in 1517 formally besieged by the Burgundians. A diet met in the town in the close of this latter year; and long after, in 1672, Sneek was again the seat of an assembly of the states. In 1570 and in 1825 there were severe inundations.