Alkmaar

The name Alkmaar first appears in a 10th-century document. The oldest part of the town lies on an ancient sand bank a couple of metres above the surrounding land, which gave some protection from floods in the Middle Ages. The village grew into a town and was granted city rights in 1254, and by the late Middle Ages it was the largest town north of Amsterdam and Haarlem — as it still is — serving as the market for the farm produce of the region. Just to the south, the small Achtermeer became, in 1532, the first lake recorded as drained by windmills.

In 1573, early in the Eighty Years' War, Spanish forces under Don Fadrique, son of the Duke of Alba, laid siege to the city. The citizens appealed to the Prince of Orange, who promised to open the dykes and flood the land if necessary, and did so despite the protests of farmers fearful for their harvest. Some of his dispatches fell into Spanish hands, and with the water rising the besiegers withdrew. The relief was a turning point in the war and gave rise to the saying "Bij Alkmaar begint de victorie" — "victory begins at Alkmaar" — still celebrated every 8 October.

The city's fortunes followed its role as a market and regional centre. The North Holland Canal, opened in 1824, was dug through Alkmaar. In the late 20th century surrounding villages were absorbed into suburban growth and the population almost doubled, and in 2015 the municipalities of Graft-De Rijp and Schermer were merged into Alkmaar.

The cheese market is Alkmaar's emblem. Every Friday morning from early April into September, the Waagplein becomes a stage: traders strike deals with the traditional handclap, and carriers weigh the cheeses in front of the medieval weigh house. It is one of only four traditional Dutch cheese markets still held, and it deals in cheeses made in the local area rather than the big national brands. Nothing is sold at the market itself, which is a demonstration of how the merchants' trade once worked, but stalls around it sell all kinds of cheese.

The relief of the siege on 8 October 1573 is the city's other great occasion, and the saying "victory begins at Alkmaar" is known across the country. Alkmaar Pride, a nine-day event ending in a canal parade, and Kaeskoppenstad, a historical event, fill out the calendar.

Football means AZ, the club of Alkmaar and the Zaan district, which won the Eredivisie in 2008–09 and plays at the AFAS Stadion. The city has an unexpected link with pop history: John Lennon's first guitar was made here, and a Beatles Museum honours it.

The municipality had about 113,000 people in 2023. Most live outside the old centre, in former villages such as Oudorp, Koedijk and Huiswaard that were joined into one built-up area between the late 1970s and early 1990s, and since 2015 in the villages of the former Graft-De Rijp and Schermer municipalities as well.

Alkmaar is the main town of the northern part of the province, but its closeness to Amsterdam keeps it from being an independent regional centre in the way of cities such as Zwolle or Maastricht; frequent intercity trains link it to the capital. Shops, services and offices fill the centre, and the city serves the dune villages and polders around it.

The old centre's rhythm is set by the Friday cheese market in summer, when visitors fill the Waagplein, and by the shoppers on the Langestraat and the evening crowds in the pubs facing the square. Weekends bring cycling in the countryside and trips to the beaches at Egmond aan Zee and Bergen aan Zee, and AZ home games bring out the city's football fans.

Cheese is at the centre of Alkmaar's food culture. The market deals in cheeses from the local area — the weighing square was where Edam and Gouda cheeses were traditionally sold — and the stalls around the Waagplein sell young and aged cheeses as well as cheese-related products. The Holland Cheese Museum in the Waag tells the story of the trade.

Fish has its own history here: the simple covered stalls of the Vismarkt, at the corner of the Mient and the Verdronkenoord, were first built in the 16th century and renovated around 1755. Herring, usually with onions and pickles, and kibbeling, battered chunks of fish, traditionally cod, are Dutch snacks found across the province.

Beer has its own museum here, the National Beer Museum De Boom, in a 17th-century brewery that was once one of the largest in the city; in the Middle Ages beer was drunk in huge quantities in towns that rarely had safe drinking water. The streets around the Waagplein and the Langestraat hold most of the city's cafés and restaurants.