Haarlem

Haarlem grew up beside the Spaarne, on a major road running north and south through Holland. Count Willem II granted it city rights on 23 November 1245, and walls followed after a siege in 1270. By the end of the Middle Ages it was a flourishing city of textiles, shipyards and breweries — around 50 breweries worked here during the Spanish siege, drawing on clean water from the dunes.

That siege began in December 1572, early in the Dutch Revolt. After seven months, with the Haarlemmermeer lake blockaded by forces loyal to the Spanish king, the city surrendered on 13 July 1573, and many defenders were killed. Together with a great fire in 1576, the siege left about a third of the city destroyed. To recover, the council welcomed newcomers, largely from Flanders, who brought linen and silk weaving; the population grew from 18,000 in 1573 to around 40,000 in 1622, and painters such as Frans Hals, Jacob van Ruisdael and Jan Steen worked here. From the 1630s Haarlem was a centre of the tulip trade and stood at the heart of tulip mania.

As trade shifted to Amsterdam, Haarlem declined in the 18th century and became a retreat for wealthy Amsterdammers, who built summer homes along the Spaarne. In 1839 the first train service in the Netherlands opened between Haarlem and Amsterdam, and factories followed. During the German occupation the ten Boom family hid Jews and resistance workers until their arrest in 1944. After the war new housing went up in Schalkwijk, and Haarlem is now part of the Amsterdam metropolitan area.

Haarlem's culture is rooted in its Golden Age painters. The Frans Hals Museum holds the work of the city's most famous artist, and Teylers Museum on the Spaarne, the oldest museum in the Netherlands, preserves an 18th-century world of science and collecting. On the Grote Markt stands a statue of Laurens Janszoon Coster, whom local tradition long credited with inventing printing — most scholars point to Gutenberg, but Haarlem children learned about "Lau" well into the 20th century.

The city's nickname, Bloemenstad, or flower city, reflects centuries as the centre of the bulb-growing district, and an April flower parade still comes to the city. The Grote Markt is the city's stage: it hosts Haarlem Jazz & More, the culinary festival Haarlem Culinair and a funfair, while the Haarlemmerhout woodland holds Bevrijdingspop, a festival for the liberation from the Nazis, and a summer music and theatre festival. The Philharmonie concert hall, the Patronaat pop hall and the Toneelschuur theatre keep a busy calendar.

Haarlem gave its name to Harlem in New York, founded as Nieuw Haarlem by the Dutch colonial director Peter Stuyvesant in 1658. Its people are proud of a city that feels intimate next to Amsterdam, and life revolves around terraces, bikes and the river.

Haarlem had about 169,000 people at the start of 2026. It lies at the northern edge of the Randstad and is part of the Amsterdam metropolitan area, linked to the capital by frequent trains. The modern city has grown far beyond its medieval core, taking in the former municipality of Schoten in 1927 and spreading south into Schalkwijk, where many houses were built in the 1960s, and east into the Waarderpolder.

As the provincial capital, Haarlem is the seat of the government of North Holland, whose provincial house stands near the Haarlemmerhout. The old centre holds most of the city's listed monuments, and on Saturdays a general market fills the Grote Markt.

The rhythm is that of a comfortable Dutch city: commuting by bike and train, an early dinner, and evenings on the terraces around the square in summer. Boating on the Spaarne is a popular summer pastime, and the dunes and the beach at Zandvoort are a short ride away at weekends.

Haarlem's food story is above all about beer. The city was a major brewer for centuries — about a hundred breweries worked here in 1620 — before the trade died out: by 1820 none were registered. In the 1990s a local society revived old recipes under the Jopen name, and in 2010 Jopen opened a brewery in a former church in the centre, the Jopenkerk; Uiltje Brewing followed in 2012 with craft beers.

Everyday eating follows the wider province. Herring is sold from fish stalls, usually with onions and pickles, and kibbeling, battered chunks of fish, traditionally cod, is a popular Dutch snack. Cheese, bread and snack-bar food such as bitterballen and kroketten fill the rest of the day.

A general market fills the Grote Markt on Saturdays, with a textile market on Mondays, and the streets around the square — the Lange Veerstraat, the Botermarkt and the Spekstraat — are lined with cafés, bars and restaurants. Haarlem Culinair, a culinary event, is held on the Grote Markt each year.