The ultimate city guide to Haarlem, Netherlands
In the mill-dotted countryside around Haarlem, endless fields of tulips have always been grown. Craft beer is bottled in the shops, and artists set up their canvases in the busy streets to capture the beauty of Haarlem for all time.
The city of North Holland has about 150,000 people and is about 20 kilometers from Amsterdam. It has both the cultural energy of a big city and the real, poetic feel of a small town with deep roots in the past. Haarlem is surrounded by beautiful natural dunes that keep it from the North Sea and are caressed by the flow of the Spaarne.
It was built long ago, and the Counts of Holland chose it as their home between the 11th and 13th centuries, making it a very important place.
Here, Haarlem became the city’s center and started to grow until 1527, when a terrible war with Spain led to a seven-month siege that killed a lot of the city’s people.
But the sad event didn’t stop the local people from getting back on their feet. Both the population and the economy grew again, and the area became known around the world for making linen (which the weavers of Flanders brought in) and growing tulips. People called it the “Dutch Golden Age.”
Haarlem was a city where everything seemed possible, elegant, and friendly. Painters like Frans Hals, Adriaen Van Ostade, and Jacob Van Ruisdael loved to capture this feeling on canvas with passionate brush strokes.
Haarlem is still a good place to get ideas, if not for a painting then at least for a nice vacation. The real heart of the city is in the central Grote Markt, which is surrounded by the most interesting buildings.
This is where markets, events, and locals get together to talk and have a drink. The bronze sculpture by Laurens Janszoon Coster stands in the middle of the square. The Dutch say that he invented printing 16 years before Gutemberg. There isn’t a lot of proof for this claim, but everyone in Haarlem is proud to have such a famous ancestor.
On the square is the huge cathedral of San Bavone, which is now a Protestant church. It is home to some treasures from different times, such as the 80-meter-tall bell tower and the choir from the 14th century and the organ by Christian Muller from the beginning of the 18th century. The magic of Handel, Mozart, and Schubert touched the keys of this instrument, which is one of the most beautiful of its kind in the world.
Town Hall
In front of the church, you can see the Town Hall (Stadhuis), which was built in 1250 as the home of King William II of Germany.
Over the years, William V added the Hall of Counts and the tower next to it, making it even more beautiful.
The second tower is a copy of the original tower, which was built in the middle of the 15th century and torn down in the 18th century because it was unsafe.
After the religious wars of the 1500s, the architect Lieven de Key made a lot of changes to the whole complex.
In 1602, the same architect built the fish market and the old meat market on the west side of the square.
The Dutch name for the meat market is “Vleeshal.” It is now used for modern art shows and a small archeology museum, but a large painting of a bull’s head shows what it used to be.
On the other hand, the Frans Hals museum has set up an art section in the Vishal.
Teylers Museum
The Teylers Museum is the oldest museum in all of the Netherlands. It was started by Pieter Teyler Van der Hulst in the second half of the 18th century. The patron, who was interested in both the arts and sciences and loved to collect, put together paintings and sketches by artists from different countries. Raphael, Michelangelo, and other great Dutch and French painters are easy to find.
Cultural Delights and Festivities in Haarlem
Haarlem has a lot going on in terms of culture. There are museums and monuments, but there are also many events that happen all year long, every month, and offer fun for everyone. In April, there are two very important events: a big parade of flower-covered floats from Noordwijk to Haarlem, where they stay for a day, and the setting up of a beautiful fair on the Grote Markt.
Haarlem was also the setting for an Italian movie that was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1970. It was called The Tulips of Haarlem and was directed by Franco Brusati. This movie does nothing but show how much this city loves and values typical Dutch flowers.
Do not miss the Bevrijdingspop music festival, which is held on May 5 to remember when Holland was freed from the Nazis at the end of World War II. You should also go to the Haarlem Jazzstad jazz festival, the Haarlem Culinair culinary event, and the Haarlemse Stripdagen comic days.
How to get there
You can get to Haarlem by train from Amsterdam, Leiden, Zandvoort, and Zee, all of which are about 15–20 minutes away. You can use two different train stations. Schiphol, which is southeast of Amsterdam, is the closest airport. From there, you can take a bus to get to Haarlem.
The weather in this area is usually cold, and even in the summer, the temperatures are low. In January, the average temperatures range from 0 °C to 5 °C, while in August, they range from 15 °C to 22 °C. Rain is rare in the summer, but it rains a lot more in the fall and winter. Between November and December, it rains on average 20 days a month.