Haarlem

Haarlem (här`ləm), city (1994 pop. 150,213), capital of North Holland prov., W Netherlands, on the Spaarne River, near the North Sea. Although an industrial center with shipyards, machinery plants, and textile mills, Haarlem is chiefly noted as the center of a famous flower-growing district and the export point for bulbs (especially tulips). Haarlem was chartered in 1245. In 1573 it was sacked by the Spanish during the revolt of the Netherlands. During the 16th and 17th cent., Haarlem was a center of Dutch painting; Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael, and Adriaen van Ostade worked there. Since that period the city has been the center of tulip raising. Among Haarlem's numerous historic buildings are the Church of St. Bavo, or Groote Kerk (15th cent.), which has a world-famous organ; the Stadhuis [city hall], formerly a palace of the counts of Holland, begun in 1250; and many medieval gabled houses. The city also has a number of museums. Nearby is a monument commemorating the legendary boy of Haarlem who stopped a leak in the dike with his finger.

---

Haarlem

City (pop., 2001 est.: 148,377), western Netherlands. It lies along the Spaarne River, west of Amsterdam. By the 12th century it had become a fortified town and the residence of the counts of Holland. It was chartered in 1245 and incorporated in the United Netherlands in 1577. Its prosperity peaked in the 17th century, when it was a refuge for Huguenots and also an artistic centre. It is an industrial city and the centre for a tulip-growing region. Sites of interest include the 13th-century town hall and the 14th-century Great Church.

---

Haarlem

a city in the W Netherlands, capital of North Holland province. Pop.: 147 000 (2003 est.)

---

Haarlem 

a city in the Netherlands, near Amsterdam; part of the Randstad conurbation. Capital of the province of North Holland. Population, 165,900 (1975).

Haarlem has quays on the Spaarne Canal. The city manufactures transportation equipment, electronic equipment, textiles, garments, knitwear, and food products. Products of the chemical industry include synthetic rubber. Haarlem is the center of a region devoted to commercial floriculture, where tulips are cultivated for export.

Haarlem’s old city developed within a semicircle of fortifications lining the Old Canal (Oude Gracht); the principal centers were at the harbor on the bend of the Spaarne and at the Groóte Markt. Around the Groote Markt were constructed the palace of the counts of Holland (c. 1350; converted into the Town Hall, 1620–30), the St. Bavo Church (Groóte Kerk; 15th-16th centuries), and the Meat Market (1602–03). In the 14th and 15th centuries Haarlem grew beyond the Spaarne; between the 15th and 17th centuries it expanded beyond the Oude Gracht and north of the New Canal (Nieuwe Gracht), becoming a “water city” with a regular network of canals. In the 19th century the city expanded to the north and west; in the 20th century it has spread mainly to the west and southwest.

Noteworthy buildings include the Weigh House (1597–98) and the Frans Hals Museum, once a home for the elderly (1608, architect L. de Key). The southern part of Haarlem has several parks, most of which date from the 1920’s and 1930s. The city’s museums include the Teyler Museum, which houses European art of the 16th to 20th centuries, and the Roman Catholic Episcopal Museum, which features Dutch medieval art.