Haarlem, Holland - Tourist. My friends live here

Go for a walk along the Spaarne river and you will first see the De Adriaan mill…

...and then a majestic building.

And if you don’t mind drinking a glass of real Dutch beer, be sure to visit, located in the building of a former church. Your eyes and taste buds will thank you! :)

Haarlem is also notable for the fact that it is located very close to the main tourist places and cities of Holland: from, the North Sea. It is for this reason that, in my opinion, it is a good idea to stay in Haarlem during a trip to Holland.

The road from Haarlem to Amsterdam, as well as to the picturesque beaches, takes only 15 minutes. Which way to go? It's up to you to decide!

Saturday market in Haarlem is an unforgettable event! It is located in the heart of the city, on the Grote Markt square, between the main attractions of Haarlem: the church of St. Bavo…

...and City Hall.

This is how the main square of Haarlem looks on weekdays in the warm season.

Walking along the pavilions and stalls, where you will be offered fresh flowers, cheeses, nuts, fresh bread…

... fish, spices, Dutch waffles and clothes, you will hear Dutch, English, German, and Russian speech ...

Surprisingly, people from different parts of the world feel at home in Haarlem!

And yes, in 2015 the Saturday market in Haarlem was voted the best street market in Holland!

I'll tell you what I can't leave the market without. First, there are flowers. There are many of them, different, very cheap and very beautiful.

For example, the bouquet I bought when I was cooking cost only 5 euros!

Secondly, in the market you can try high-quality (yes, and Dutch herring too). I really like the Vietnamese appetizer lupmiya (rice rolls with vegetables). It costs only 1.20 euros per piece. And two pieces - for me, satiety is like a whole lunch :)

Saturday market in Haarlem is open from 8.30 to 16.00.

But, having walked around the Haarlem market, do not rush to leave the city! There is enough entertainment here for at least a day :) If you want to walk shopping(and even the Dutch themselves come from other cities), then turn straight from the main square onto Grote Houstraat or Zijlstraat. The first of them contains mainly mass-market stores (Zara, Mango, H&M, etc.), and the second contains more expensive brands (Suitsupply, Purdey, Society Shop, etc.).

drop by inside the church of St. Bavo.

Inside this majestic building, many interesting exhibits and discoveries await you. In particular, you can see (and sometimes hear) the organ played by the little ten-year-old Mozart.

From May 28 to October 1, 2019, every Tuesday at 20.15 (and in July-August and Thursdays at 16.00) free organ concerts are held in St. Bavo Church. Admission is free for everyone!

Concert schedule in 2019 (click to enlarge):

if you love vintage museums, then go to the one already mentioned above (the oldest museum in Holland!) Or.

For interesting souvenirs, I advise you to look into the Haarlem Souvenirs store (Kruisweg 61, on the street leading from the station to the center).

In addition, here you can find very interesting vintage things.

Vintage - that is, used, but not at the level of a flea market, but more intelligent, or something - carefully selected, original in good condition. I don’t know about you, but I’m already tired of bringing magnets from trips and now I buy vintage teaspoons and other unusual things everywhere (in Lisbon, for example, I found an opener with an Olympic bear, my age, with a stamped price tag: 60 kopecks).

There is also a large collection of clockwork toys. In general, a very colorful and boring store!

In the evening, when life returns to normal on the main square of Haarlem, take a seat at a table in one of numerous cafes and restaurants on the Grote Markt - and watch the life of the inhabitants of the city. Before your eyes - a real, non-tourist Holland!

Have a great holiday in Haarlem!

If you have not yet booked accommodation in Holland, I advise you to consider your options. For the price, they will be more profitable than hotels in Amsterdam. And the atmosphere of cozy Haarlem will help you spend your vacation away from the bustle of the capital.

If you have any questions regarding recreation, leisure or accommodation in Haarlem, I will be happy to answer them in the comments.

Located on the Grote Markt, the Church of St. Bavo is rightfully considered one of the most interesting and impressive buildings in the Dutch city of Haarlem, and is also an important historical and architectural monument and is included in the "Top 100 Dutch heritage sites".

Originally built as a Catholic parish church, in 1559 it became the Catholic Cathedral of Haarlem, and less than 20 years later, during the Reformation, it was confiscated from the Catholic community in favor of the Protestants, whose property it has been since then.

A small parish church on the Grote Markt supposedly existed as early as the 9th century, but the first mention of the Church of St. Bavo as a rather large Romanesque building with an imposing bell tower, which was used as a watchtower by Haarlem firefighters, dates back to 1245. However, this building was heavily damaged by fires in the 14th century. The elegant building in the Gothic style, which we see today, and its impressive, almost 80-meter bell tower, which is visible from almost anywhere in the city, were built in 1370-1520. So, for example, the choir was built in 1370-1400, and the transept and nave were built in the 15th century in several stages. The original stone tower was erected at the beginning of the 16th century, but proved too heavy for load-bearing supports and by 1520 it was replaced with a wooden, lead-covered structure. For security reasons, stone vaults were also abandoned here (in the church of St. Bavo, the nave and choir have a rib vault made of cedar wood).

During the Reformation, the interior of the Church of St. Bavo underwent dramatic changes, as the Protestants were intolerant of religious images, and in general they did not approve of the rather luxurious design of Catholic churches. Several centuries later, mainly thanks to the paintings of local artists of that time, the original interior of the church was restored, but only partially.

Until 1831, burials were held in the church of St. Bavo, as a rule, of famous and influential residents of Haarlem. You will also find here the tomb of Frans Hals, one of the outstanding artists of the Dutch Golden Age.

The main pride of the Church of St. Bavo is its famous organ, created in 1735-1738 by the talented German master Christian Müller. The stucco decorations and gilding are the work of the Dutchman Jan van Logteren. At the time of its creation, it was the largest organ in the world. Many famous musicians played this amazing instrument, including Mendelssohn, Handel and Mozart when he was only ten years old.

is the largest industrial region in the Netherlands. This large port city (its territory occupies 32 km 2, of which 2.6 km 2 is occupied by water expanses) on the Sparna River is located only twenty kilometers to the west. Its population is approximately 147 thousand people, according to the 2005 census.

read more In the 17th century, Haarlem became the center of the tulip trade due to its favorable location and the construction of a canal - the trequart - connecting the city with Amsterdam. The country is gripped by an outbreak of "tulip mania", and the price of tulip bulbs soars to unprecedented heights.

http://dga10.dk/map192 In the 19th century, King Willem II ordered the Haarlemmermeer lake to be drained. This event, together with the rapidly growing number of industrial enterprises, caused a deterioration in the quality of water in the Sparna River. In 1859, the Old Canal was filled up, and a street of the same name was built on this site. The increase in land areas in the city gives rise to a new wave of "tulip mania", which has a positive effect on the development of the city.

click to see more In the 20th century, the city grew, expanding first to the north, and then to the east and south.

see more The city's attractions

Of the sights that are definitely worth a visit for a tourist who is in the city for the first time, one can note the central city square - the Grote Markt. On it is the city hall, built in the 13th century and reconstructed in the Renaissance. An elegant loggia was added to the left wing during this period. On the square are the famous Meat Rows (Wleschal), built in 1600 in the style of the Dutch Renaissance by the famous city architect L. de Kay.

On the same square you can also see the Gothic church of Sint-Bavo, the tower of which is eighty meters high. The tomb of St. Bavo is located here, and the famous Dutch artist Frans Hals is also buried here. This basilica houses the famous organ, which was created in 1738 by Christian Müller. On it, such world-famous authors as Mozart, Handel, Liszt, Schubert and Schweitzer performed their great works.

There are many other beautiful old buildings in the city, mostly medieval and renaissance.

Haarlem is also a world-famous arts center. It is in this city that the oldest art gallery in Holland is located, which demonstrates various collections of paintings, starting from the Golden Age of Holland. Another well-known art center is the museum of the Dutch artist Frans Hals.

You cling to the mosaics of the Haarlem station with your eyes, even when you just drive by. Intricate inscriptions, patterns, trains - all the delights of modernity.

And outside, if you go out, it's even more interesting: a traditionally reddish-brown "castle" that has grown into a modern glass structure.


But such an alliance - only at the station, and then - a real, in its best traditions, an old Dutch town.

Haarlem was the capital of the county already in the 12th century. Here, for the first time, they began to protect themselves from the sea with dams and grow tulips. Like Leiden, this city survived a heavy siege in the 16th century in the war with the Spaniards. And although in the end it was surrendered, a monument to the heroic defenders and defenders! meets guests at the station square (and Leiden did not give up, but there is no such monument there).

The second well-known event associated with Haarlem is the famous "tulip fever", which ruined thousands of Dutch people in 1637 who were involved in the resale of bulbs. Despite all the troubles, the cultivation of these flowers became a habit among the Dutch and became a tradition. Therefore, the peak of the tourist season in the country falls on April-May, when not far from Haarlem, in Keukenhof, the world's largest tulip fields bloom.

First of all, thanks to tulips, the economic recovery of the city began in the 17th century.
Cozy, sparsely populated Haarlem keeps on its streets and squares the atmosphere of that era - a time when local burghers grew rich through trade with the New World, and this allowed them to build luxurious mansions, decorating them with exquisite furniture, velvet and silk, silver and porcelain, and as well as many magnificent paintings.

Meat rows - the building of the guild of butchers, now the exhibition hall:

Actually, it was this burgher wealth that gave rise to that increased demand for paintings, because of which an unparalleled flowering of first-class painting happened in Holland in the 17th century, which has not yet been surpassed by anyone in its quality.

And Haarlem is no exception. Pieter Sanredam, the Ruisdal brothers, Adrian van Ostade, Jan Steen, Jan van Goyen, Esaias van de Velde - all those who are now called "Little Dutch" are in fact brilliant craftsmen who worked in this city. The so-called genre of "breakfasts" also appeared here - an artistic mess of the wondrous beauty of things and delicious food.

A fragment of a still life of Willem Heda, amazing with his painting, from the Haarlem Museum:

If anything, this is an ordinary, ordinary Dutch still life of the 17th century, nothing special.

And apart from the brilliant guild of masters - Frans Hals, the one who is now sometimes called the "Harlem Rembrandt". Perhaps a worthy comparison - both have no equal in the emancipation and flight of the brush, the virtuosity of the brushstroke, the ideal thoughtfulness of the color scheme.

The Hals Museum, once the city's almshouse, and now one of the best collections of Dutch painting in the country, has signs on every corner, it's easy to find.

Perhaps this is one of the quietest quarters of the city - with cozy courtyards immersed in flowers, shining glass of huge windows, stepped facades similar in outline.

There were nursing homes here, where wealthy burghers lived out their lives: each had a room with a separate entrance, a terrace, a small front garden with tulips, a bench where you could sit in the sun. Peace and splendor. Maybe that's why these streets turned out to be so unexpected for the 17th century "typical" architecture?

In this house the old Hals spent the last years of his life.

The museum is large, atmospheric - the life of Holland during the heyday of the burghers can be observed here in numerous details. Not only paintings - furniture, ceramics and utensils, watches and books, there is even a reconstruction of an old pharmacy!
A whole hall of stunning doll houses with skillfully recreated interiors of that time.

Among the many paintings hanging on the walls of the museum, portraits of Hals are easily and unmistakably recognizable.

Quite a lot is known about Rembrandt's life. About Khals - much less. From birth to thirty years, there is no biographical information about him. But then they are so contradictory that you don’t know what to believe.

On the one hand, he was quite a prosperous burgher, the father of a large family (eleven children, five of whom became artists!) and a renowned master who had no end to orders: he painted group portraits of the most glorious officer regiments, and not only for Haarlem. There is a known case when he refused to go to Amsterdam (it was too lazy) and demanded that the customers themselves come to him for posing. A member of the Haarlem Department of Rhetoric (a kind of literary club), a friend of the famous traveler Isaac Massa and even Rene Descartes, whom he wrote twice while he was visiting Holland.

Fragment of a portrait of Katarina Groft with her daughter.

On the other hand, police records have been preserved: he beat his wife, did not pay the baker or the nanny of his children, spent days on end in pubs. The reputation of an artist who painted his paintings while drunk haunted and haunts Frans Hals to this day.
Indeed, against the backdrop of the perfect painting of his compatriots, polished to the last detail, his light, bold, dynamic and temperamental brushstroke, the naturalness and unique character of the models should have caused some confusion among contemporaries who are accustomed to photographic accuracy and "made" portraits.
Maybe from here - "drunken brush"?

Actually, his portraits are of two different types.

Impeccable bespoke. Unlike Rembrandt, Hals wrote them strictly according to all the rules: open faces, graceful poses, luxurious costumes with all the required regalia, richly laid banquet tables (then rifle regiments could feast up to four days in a row, more were prohibited by city laws), in each appearance - stiff pride and dignity.
From the Hals Museum "Banquet of officers of the company of St. George"

Such are the solitary portraits of well-dressed wealthy burghers, fathers and mothers of families.
"Annette Hahnemann" from The Hague Mauritshuis:

And closer. Well, it's a beauty, isn't it?

Completely different portraits - the owners and regulars of Harlem taverns, where the artist, apparently, spent a lot of time: the old witch Malle Babbe with an owl on her shoulder, mulatto waiters, a disheveled gypsy, or that famous "Merry Drinking Companion" from the Rijksmuseum that holds out to meet us your sparkling glass. All of them are cheerful, cheerful, smiling.

Each of the heroes of Hals makes you peer, guess the character, think about what the hero could do, how he spent his time. Most of the characters in these "non-commissioned" portraits are surprisingly positive and likable.

Probably, the artist himself was like that until old age came, bringing with it not only illnesses, but also poverty, ruin, debts, problems with grown children. On his last portraits - the regents and regents of a nursing home - dry, shapeless, flabby and indifferent faces without a trace of their former cheerfulness.

He was buried in the Cathedral of St. Bavo on the Grote Markt, where our return journey from the Hals Museum lies.

On the way, we also stop by the Taylor Museum, the oldest museum in Holland, mainly natural science: with minerals, bones, technical devices, old books and a large exposition dedicated to balloons.

Grote Markt is the most beautiful square in the city and one of the best in terms of architecture in Holland.

The largest Protestant cathedral in Haarlem has not changed at all for hundreds of years. And today a lantern hangs in it over a black slab, under which Frans Hals is buried. And now the big organ is working properly, for the sake of which Mozart liked to come here - just to play.

In addition to the Cathedral of St. Bavo, along the perimeter of the Grote Markt there are many beautiful burgher mansions, the oldest of which were built as far back as the thirteenth century! And the magnificent building of the city hall. It was built in the middle of the 14th century, and the facade was created at the beginning of the 17th by the famous Dutch architect Lieven de Kay. It still performs the same functions today as three hundred years ago.

We stop at the Grote Markt at a restaurant for a bite to eat and paint, ending our Haarlem tour where we started.

Nastin drawing with the town hall:

Maybe I’ll write more about Bosch (if I now understand that someone needs it), and that’s enough, probably, about Holland.

Haarlem from A to Z: map, hotels, attractions, restaurants, entertainment. Shopping, shops. Photos, videos and reviews about Haarlem.

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In cheerful Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, it is easy to get tired of the bustle and influx of tourists. I want to be in peace and quiet, to feel the spirit of antiquity away from the metropolitan whirlwind. And it's not far to go for all this! Just 20 km from Amsterdam is Haarlem, which has all the listed advantages. And not only as a means of changing the scenery, this sweetest city deserves attention, many people go to the capital of North Holland to thoughtfully examine all the local beauties.

How to get to Haarlem

Of course, it is most convenient to go from Amsterdam, trains to the destination go very often (5-6 times per hour) and only 15 minutes. Traveling in second class will cost you 4.30 EUR one way, and in first class - 7 EUR. You can take the train at Amsterdam Central Station or at Schiphol Airport. In this case, the trip will take about half an hour and cost 6 EUR (9 EUR in first class), but the main thing is that you will have to transfer to another train at Amsterdam Sloterdijk station. So, when traveling to Haarlem from Schiphol, it is better to use bus number 300. (It also passes through Amsterdam, by the way.) The large red Zuidtangent express trains are distinguished by high comfort and speed, which is achieved by specially designed routes along bus lines not busy with city traffic jams. The whole journey to Haarlem will take 40 minutes maximum and will cost about 4-5 EUR. Please note: a ticket that allows you to travel all day costs 7 EUR, there is a benefit if several trips are planned. Prices on the page are for September 2018.

Don't forget that you are in the Netherlands. Here you can rent not only a car, but also a bicycle. It will take you longer to get to Haarlem on it, depending, of course, on your capabilities, but hardly less than an hour, but you will be more mobile in your movements around the city. But you can’t ride a bike in the Keukenhof flower park, located not far from the city, but in Haarlem - please!

Search for flights to Leiden (nearest airport to Haarlem)

Cuisine and restaurants in Haarlem

Traditionally, most cafes, patisseries and restaurants are concentrated around the Grote Markt, the historic center of the city. The most curious of them is Het theehuis, which has preserved almost untouched furnishings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The food in all cafes is very high quality, the prices are not much higher than in similar establishments in other parts of the city. Again, you can always have a snack on the go with the most delicate herring from the stalls painted in the colors of the Dutch flag - they are distributed throughout the country.

If the soul asks for something sweet, then it makes sense to visit the Rykenberg confectionery, where you can buy a cake for literally 2-3 EUR. This cafe-shop is clearly liked by the townspeople: many buy pastries to take away. In the Ringers confectionery there is less excitement, and the products are no worse, moreover, they are supplemented with all kinds of chocolates and sweets. For a quick snack, the ubiquitous McDonald's or the local Broodmand is suitable. Those who are going to dine at the restaurant can be offered a luxurious Subliem, but only if you are ready to pay an average of about 16 EUR per serving for national dishes. An alternative could be Falafel Land, Jacobus Pieck, Grand Cafe Nobel and others.

Weather in Haarlem

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Shopping and shops

Of the large shopping centers in Haarlem, one can single out Wikelcentrum Schalkwijk and many large malls such as Dekamarkt (Centrum stop), where you can buy food, clothes, shoes, household goods (pay attention to De Kunstboer) and much more. Cheese, of course, can be bought at any supermarket or market, or you can go to the cozy Kaas Winkeltje shop. And eating the purchased product is especially tasty with coffee, which is an excellent choice here. You can verify this in the De Kale Jonker shop on Zijlstraat, coming from the Grote Markt.

And on this square, in fact, there is a paradise for tourists who pick up gifts and souvenirs. On Saturday and Monday, an extensive market unfolds here, where, like in the good old days, you can buy whatever your heart desires. On Monday (here it is generally a market day) and Friday, the same transformation takes place with the Botermarkt square, turning into a farmers' market. Flower growers, attention: it is in the markets that you can buy tulip bulbs.

Guides in Haarlem

Popular hotels in Haarlem

Entertainment and attractions in Haarlem

The sights of Haarlem literally start from the train station. It was rebuilt several times, and the last time in the Art Nouveau style, which made an ordinary building a real architectural monument.

Further on the list of obligatory historical objects is the Grote Markt market square with the Town Hall, which is obligatory for all European cities, and the monumental Cathedral of St. Bavo. Do not confuse it with the Gothic church of St. Bavo (aka the Church of Sint Bavo, aka the Grote Kerk), which houses a huge organ that Mozart, Handel and Liszt once played. By the way, both buildings deserve attention. Just like St. Anne's Church, Villa Velgelegen, Hadrian's Mill, Amsterdam Gate, St. Elizabeth's Hospital, which now houses the Historical Museum.

Not so long history - the Second World War - can be remembered in the museums of Anne Frank and Corrie ten Boom. Visit the Teyler Museum, the Museum of Industrial Art and the Museum of the Franz Hals painter, which is not far from some of the narrowest and most beautiful streets of the city. And if possible, go to Haarlem in the spring, when the flower parade takes place there in April.