Hoorn (Dutch pronunciation:[ˈɦoːr(ə)n]ⓘ) is acity andmunicipality in the northwest of theNetherlands, in theprovince ofNorth Holland. It is the largest town and the traditional capital of the region ofWest Friesland.[6] Hoorn is located on theMarkermeer, 20 kilometers (12 mi) east ofAlkmaar and 35 kilometers (22 mi) north ofAmsterdam. The municipality has just over 75,000 inhabitants and a land area of 20.38 km2 (7.87 sq mi), making it the third most densely populated municipality in North Holland afterHaarlem and Amsterdam.[3] Apart from the city of Hoorn, the municipality includes the villages ofBlokker andZwaag, as well as parts of thehamletsDe Bangert [nl],De Hulk andMunnickaij [nl].
Hoorn is well known in the Netherlands for its rich history.[7] The town acquiredcity rights in 1357 and flourished during theDutch Golden Age.[2] In this period, Hoorn developed into a prosperousport city, being home to one of the sixchambers of theDutch East India Company (VOC).[7] Towards the end of the eighteenth century, however, it started to become increasingly more difficult for Hoorn to keep competing with nearby Amsterdam.[6] Ultimately, it lost its function as port city and became a regional center of trade, mainly serving the smaller villages of West Friesland.[6] Nowadays, Hoorn is a city with modern residential areas and a historic city center that, due to its proximity to Amsterdam, is sometimes considered to be part of theRandstad metropolitan area.[8]Cape Horn and theHoorn Islands were both named after this city.[9]
Variant flag of Hoorn (1783), with the archaicFrench spellingHorne
The origin of the name Hoorn – in archaic spelling Hoern, Horne or Hoirn(e) – is surrounded in myths.[10] According to oldFrisian legends, the name comes from Hornus, a bastard son ofKing Redbad and brother ofAldgillis II, who presumably founded the city in 719 and named it after himself.[11] A different theory claims that the name was derived from a sign depicting apost horn, which hung from one of the taverns established by brewers fromHamburg in the earlyfourteenth century.[12]
According toHadrianus Junius, the name could also be a reference to the city's horn-shaped port.[12] Others believed that the name was derived fromdamphoorn, a weed with a hollow stem that grew in the area at the time of the city's establishment.[13] The chroniclerTheodorus Velius [nl] rejects this theory, as well as the assertion that the name comes from "Dampterhorn", which was thought to be the only remaining neighborhood of the flooded village ofDampten [nl].[14]
One of the earliest mentions of Hoorn is found in a letter which states that in 1303, a merchant fromBruges was imprisoned in West Friesland near a place called "Hornicwed".[15] This phrase – although it is uncertain whether it actually refers to Hoorn – is acompound of theMiddle Dutch wordshornic, meaning "corner", andwed, meaning "shallow water".[16][17] It is likely that the name Hoorn was indeed derived from Middle Dutchhornic, or simplyhorn, and that the city was named for its location in a sharpbight of (the former)Lake Flevo.[10][13]
In the beginning of the eighth century, the threat ofViking raids led to unrest in theFrisian Kingdom, causing many people to leave their hometowns and settle elsewhere.[11] Following this example, Hornus – a bastard son ofRedbad – allegedly moved westward along with his companions and, in 719, built a settlement west of the riverVlie, which he named after himself.[11] This legendary settlement did not exist for long, as it burnt down only a few years later.[11]
In the Late Middle Ages, the site of present-day Hoorn was aswampy area that was not at all suitable foragriculture, as opposed to the morefertile inland.[13][19] Here, overproduction ofdairy products led to the establishment of amarketplace within the domain ofZwaag, where excesses could be traded for other goods.[19] This marketplace was located near asluice in the river Gouw, which was the most convenient passage into theZuiderzee for the surrounding villages.[19]
The marketplace attracted many foreign traders, most notably fromHamburg andBremen, who came to sell their goods (mostlybeer) to the local population in return forbutter andcheese.[19] This also brought three brothers from Hamburg to the area, who recognized its convenient location and decided to each build aninn near the marketplace to increase the sale of their beers.[20] The construction of these buildings was completed in 1316 and led to the expansion of the settlement, as more merchants fromNorthern Germany andDenmark now visited the place to trade.[13][20] As a result, the settlement quickly developed into a village, which was then given the name of Hoorn.[13] The town officially became a city in 1357, when Hoorn was awardedcity rights byWilliam V,Count of Holland, after a lump sum payment of 1,550schilden.[6][a]
The revolution in Hoorn occurred without bloodshed. The town’s middle classes, after a futile attempt to assert Hoorn’s wish to garrison neither theSpanish army nor the rebelSea Beggars, and after much debate, voted to open the city’s gates to the Beggars. By that time, Hoorn had already been flanked by the Beggar control of nearbyEnkhuizen andMedemblik, and many rebellious exiles from earlier troubles returned to influence the town’s politics.[22]
The city's fleet plied the seven seas and returned laden with precious commodities from theEast Indies. Exotic spices such aspepper,nutmeg,cloves andmace were sold at vast profits.[6] With their skill in trade and seafaring, sons of Hoorn established the city's name far and wide. In 1619,Jan Pieterszoon Coen (1587–1629), controversial for his violent raids inSoutheast Asia, "founded" the capital of theDutch East Indies, which he intended to name New Hoorn at first, though it was later decided that its name would beBatavia (present-dayJakarta).[24] A statue of Coen was placed on the city's central squareRoode Steen in 1893.[25] In 1616, the explorerWillem Schouten, together withJacob Le Maire, braved furious storms as he rounded the southernmost tip ofSouth America. He named itKaap Hoorn (Cape Horn) in honor of his home town.[26]
Hoorn's fortunes declined somewhat in the eighteenth century. The prosperous trading port became little more than a sleepy fishing village on the Zuiderzee.[6] FollowingNapoleonic occupation, there was a period during which the town gradually turned its back on the sea.[6] It developed to become a regional center of trade, mainly serving the smaller villages of West Friesland.[6] Stallholders and shopkeepers devoted themselves to the sale of dairy products and seeds.[6] After the introduction ofrailways andmetalled roads in the late nineteenth century, Hoorn rapidly took its place as a conveniently located and easily accessible hub in the network of towns and villages of North Holland. In 1932, theAfsluitdijk was completed, and Hoorn was no longer a seaport.
The years afterWorld War II saw a period of renewed growth.[6] At the center of a flourishinghorticultural region, the city developed a highly varied and dynamic economy.[6] In the 1970s, Hoorn was designated as an "overflow" city (groeikern) by the Dutch government to relieve pressure on the overcrowdedRandstad region.[6] As a consequence, thousands of people swapped their cramped littleapartments in Amsterdam for a family house with a garden in one of Hoorn's newly developed residential areas.[6]
The harbor was enlarged in the mid-17th century by the construction of a peninsula, theVisserseiland (to the west of the harbor), and an artificial island, theOostereiland (to the east).
Hoorn has anoceanic climate (Köppen:Cfb) strongly influenced by its proximity to theNorth Sea to the west, with prevailing westerly winds. Both winters and summers are considered mild, although winters can get quite cold, while summers are quite warm occasionally.
Hoorn, as well as most of the North Holland province, lies inUSDA hardiness zone 8b. Frosts mainly occur during spells of easterly or northeasterly winds from the innerEuropean continent. Even then, because Hoorn is surrounded on three sides by large bodies of water, nights rarely fall far below 0 °C (32 °F).
Summers are moderately warm with a number of hot days every month. The average daily high in August is 21.6 °C (70.9 °F), and 30 °C (86 °F) or higher is only measured on 1.8 days per year on average (2009–2018),[27] placing Hoorn inAHS heat zone 2. It is also common to have at least a couple of snowy days each year.
TheRoyal Netherlands Meteorological Institute has one of itsweather stations located inBerkhout, a village situated west of Hoorn. Climatological data from this station can be found in the table below. The record extremes range from −21.9 °C (−7.4 °F) to 34.6 °C (94.3 °F). The average annual precipitation is 855.5 millimetres (34 in).
The municipality of Hoorn consists of the city of Hoorn (postal codes 1620–1628) and the villages ofZwaag (postal code 1689) andBlokker (postal code 1695), which are further divided into the following districts:[30]
Many of the houses in the historical city center date back to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, especially in the area north of the harbor. Other notable buildings include:
Hoofdtoren (1464), the former harbor control tower
Hoorn has notable modern buildings as well, such as:
Schouwburg Het Park, atheater and congress center that was opened on 25 June 2004 byQueen Beatrix. The opening was delayed, as thefly tower collapsed in the night of 20 April 2001 due to faulty construction work.
TheA7 motorway, which runs fromZaandam to the German border via theAfsluitdijk, passes along Hoorn. The exit Hoorn North connects to the provincial roadN302, also calledWestfrisiaweg, which runs from Hoorn toLelystad via theHoutribdijk.
Lewes was the site of the first European settlement inDelaware: awhaling and trading post that Dutch settlers led byDavid Pieterszoon de Vries established in 1631 and namedZwaanendael.[34] Upon their arrival in theDelaware Bay, they entered akill which De Vries named "Hoornkill" after his hometown Hoorn.[35] Nowadays, the city'sZwaanendael Museum is located in a replica of the Statenlogement, the former city hall of Hoorn. Although Hoorn and Lewes have never officially been partner cities, there is close informal relationship between the two towns. Delegations from Hoorn and Lewes have visited each other's cities in light of Lewes's 375th and Hoorn's 650th anniversary in 2006 and 2007 respectively.[36]
In 1641, the Dutch conquered thecolony of Malacca from thePortuguese.[37] During the Dutch rule, the iconicStadthuys was built – a replica of the first city hall of Hoorn, which was demolished in 1797.[38][39] Hoorn and Malacca became sister cities in 1989, but the partnership was officially ended in 2005.[36] The cities still maintain an informal relationship as "friendship cities".
^The exact date on which Hoorn received its city rights is debatable. At the time, each year began onHoly Saturday rather than 1 January. The original certificate states that the city rights were granted "in the year (…) 1356, on the Sunday afterOur Lady's Day”, which corresponds to 26 March 1357 on theGregorian calendar. However, the same certificate also states that the city rights were granted by “William, Duke of Bavaria, Count of Holland and Zeeland, Lord of Friesland, andVerbeider of Hainaut". As his title changed to Count of Hainaut when his mother, theCountess of Hainaut, died on 23 June 1356, it has been argued that Hoorn must have received its city rights one year earlier, on 26 March 1356.[21] Nonetheless, the city of Hoorn celebrated its 600 and 650 year anniversary in 1957 and 2007 respectively.
^Initiated by Blokker andLot, before they merged into their respective municipalities in the 1970s.
^Cox, Joost C.M. (2006)."Stedelijke trots en stadsrechtvieringen"(PDF).Holland, Historisch Tijdschrift (in Dutch).38 (2):63–75.Archived(PDF) from the original on 18 September 2018. Retrieved6 April 2019.
^van Nierop, Henk (2009).Treason in the Northern Quarter: War, Terror, and the Rule of Law in the Dutch Revolt. Princeton University Press. pp. 63–67.
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