Haarlem - Amsterdam Bruges and Brussels - page 207

haarlem of the golden age
Parts of Haarlem still look like they did four centuries ago,
when the city was a bustling commercial center rivaling
Amsterdam. It's easy to imagine
local merchants and their wives
dressed in black with ruff collars,
promenading Market Square.
Back then, the town was a
port on the large Haarlemmer
Lake, with the North Sea only
about five miles away. As well
as being the tulip capital of the
country, Haarlem was a manu-
facturing center, producing
wool, silk, lace, damask cloth,
furniture, smoking pipes (along with cheap, locally grown
tobacco), and mass quantities of beer. Haarlemmers were
notorious consumers of beer—it was a popular breakfast
drink, and the average person drank six pints a day.
In 1585, the city got an influx of wealthy merchants when
Spanish troops invaded the culturally rich city of Antwerp,
driving Protestants and Jews north. Even when hard-line,
moralistic Calvinists dominated Haarlem's politics, the city
remained culturally and religiously diverse.
In the 1700s, Haarlem's economy declined, along with
that of the Netherlands. In the succeeding centuries, indus-
try—printing, textiles, ship building—once again made the city
an economic force.
Oude Groenmarkt 23 (€2, Mon-Sat 10:00-16:00, closed Sun to
tourists, tel. [phone]).
Consider attending (even part of) a concert to hear the
Oz-like pipe organ (regular free concerts Tue at 20:15 mid-May-
mid-Oct, additional concerts Thu at 15:00 late June-Aug, con-
certs nearly nightly at 20:15 during the organ competition in July,
confirm schedule at TI or at www.bavo.nl; bring a sweater—the
church isn't heated).
J See Grote Kerk Tour, page 212.
ss Frans Hals Museum — Haarlem is the hometown of Frans
Hals, the foremost Dutch portrait painter of the 17th-century
Golden Age. This refreshing museum, once an almshouse for old
men back in 1610, displays many of his greatest paintings, done
in his nearly Impressionistic style. You'll see group portraits and
take-me-back paintings of old-time Haarlem (€7.50, Tue-Sat
11:00-17:00, Sun 12:00-17:00, closed Mon, Groot Heiligland 62,
tel. [phone], www.franshalsmuseum.nl).
J See Frans Hals Museum Tour, page 221.