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Hoorn is a city and municipality in the northwest of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the largest town and the traditional capital of the region of West Friesland. Hoorn is located on the Markermeer, 20 kilometers (12 mi) east of Alkmaar and 35 kilometers (22 mi) north of Amsterdam. The municipality has just over 73,000 inhabitants and a land area of , making it the third most densely populated municipality in North Holland after Haarlem and Amsterdam.[1] Apart from the city of Hoorn, the municipality includes the villages of Blokker and Zwaag, as well as parts of the hamlets , De Hulk and . Hoorn is well known in the Netherlands for its rich history. The town acquired city rights in 1357 and flourished during the Dutch Golden Age.[2] In this period, Hoorn developed into a prosperous port city, being home to one of the six chambers of the Dutch East India Company (VOC).[3] Towards the end of the eighteenth century, however, it started to become increasingly more difficult for Hoorn to keep competing with nearby Amsterdam.[4] Ultimately, it lost its function as port city and became a regional center of trade, mainly serving the smaller villages of West Friesland.[4] 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 the Randstad metropolitan area. Cape Horn and the Hoorn Islands were both named after this city.
[edit] History
[edit] Early historyIn the beginning of the eighth century, the threat of Viking raids led to unrest in the Frisian Kingdom, causing many people to leave their hometowns and settle elsewhere.[5] Following this example, Hornus – a bastard son of Redbad – allegedly moved westward along with his companions and, in 719, built a settlement west of the river Vlie, which he named after himself.[5] This legendary settlement did not exist for long, as it burnt down only a few years later.[5] In the Late Middle Ages, the site of present-day Hoorn was a swampy area that was not at all suitable for agriculture, as opposed to the more fertile inland.[6] Here, overproduction of dairy products led to the establishment of a marketplace within the domain of Zwaag, where excesses could be traded for other goods.[7] This marketplace was located near a sluice in the river Gouw, which was the most convenient passage into the Zuiderzee for the surrounding villages.[7] The marketplace attracted many foreign traders, most notably from Hamburg and Bremen, who came to sell their goods (mostly beer) to the local population in return for butter and cheese.[7] This also brought three brothers from Hamburg to the area, who recognized its convenient location and decided to each build an inn near the marketplace to increase the sale of their beers. The construction of these buildings was completed in 1316 and led to the expansion of the settlement, as more merchants from Northern Germany and Denmark now visited the place to trade.[6][8] As a result, the settlement quickly developed into a village, which was then given the name of Hoorn.[6] The town officially became a city in 1357, when Hoorn was awarded city rights by William V, Count of Holland, after a lump sum payment of 1,550 schilden.[4] [edit] Dutch Golden AgeHoorn rapidly grew to become a major port city and a prosperous center of trade, which flourished during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, also known as the Dutch Golden Age.[4] It was the seat of the Committed Councils of West Friesland and the Noorderkwartier from 1573 to 1795, and the seat of the Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier from 1589 to 1795, together with Enkhuizen.[4] Furthermore, the city was an important home base for the Dutch East India Company (VOC), the Dutch West India Company (WIC) and the Noordsche Compagnie.[4] The city's fleet plied the seven seas and returned laden with precious commodities from the East Indies. Exotic spices such as pepper, nutmeg, cloves and mace were sold at vast profits.[4] 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 in Southeast Asia, "founded" the capital of the Dutch East Indies, which he intended to name New Hoorn at first, though it was later decided that its name would be Batavia (present-day Jakarta). A statue of Coen was placed on the city's central square Roode Steen in 1893. In 1616, the explorer Willem Schouten, together with Jacob Le Maire, braved furious storms as he rounded the southernmost tip of South America. He named it (Cape Horn) in honor of his home town. [edit] Eighteenth century to presentHoorn's fortunes declined somewhat in the eighteenth century. The prosperous trading port became little more than a sleepy fishing village on the Zuiderzee.[4] Following Napoleonic occupation, there was a period during which the town gradually turned its back on the sea.[4] It developed to become a regional center of trade, mainly serving the smaller villages of West Friesland.[4] Stallholders and shopkeepers devoted themselves to the sale of dairy products and seeds.[4] After the introduction of railways and metalled 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, the Afsluitdijk was completed, and Hoorn was no longer a seaport. The years after World War II saw a period of renewed growth.[4] At the center of a flourishing horticultural region, the city developed a highly varied and dynamic economy.[4] In the 1970s, Hoorn was designated as an "overflow" city by the Dutch government to relieve pressure on the overcrowded Randstad region.[4] As a consequence, thousands of people swapped their cramped little apartments in Amsterdam for a family house with a garden in one of Hoorn's newly developed residential areas.[4] [edit] Research Tips[edit] Resources[edit] Vital Records
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