De Beek (the Brook)
Saturday, 01 January 2000 15:10
Arjan
There is a small brook, originating in the dunes, flowing along the Great Market, and running into the Spaarne. A dam was laid in it's mouth in the Spaarne, to protect the city from possible flooding. In the fourteenth century there was a big wooden machine standing there to lift goods from ships on the Spaarne to small boats on the Beek. There was a small harbour on the Great Market to unload the boats. The Beek is an important link for all the buildings along the Great Market.
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The Fish and Fleshmarket
Saturday, 01 January 2000 15:10
Arjan
The Fish and Fleshmarket near the Bavo both date from the beginning of the seventeenth century. They were a means for the city council to control the quality of the meat sold. The fleshmarket is the result of a contest among architects. It was the most expensive building, but the result still strikes the eye. The butchers that were to take shop there probably had to pay the high cost of the building. For a shop in the old building they paid only about 6 guilders, but in the new one they had to pay 30 guilders.
Bavo
Saturday, 01 January 2000 15:09
Arjan
The countship in Haarlem was inextricably connected to the existence of a parish church. In the earliest records this parish was a subsidiary of the parish church in nearby Velzen. Velzen in it's turn was the property of Echternach Abbey, in Luxembourg. The parish in Haarlem is mentioned as one of the properties of the abbey in an eleventh century list. When in 1063 the bishop of Utrecht returns some stolen properties to Echternach, Haarlem is not one of them. We can deduce that the parish changed hands in the meantime, and was now property of the Count. The building itself dates from the beginning of the fourteenth century. The outlook of it's predecessor is unclear, however, a wooden or tuff building on the site of the modern choir seems probable.
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Stinzen
Saturday, 01 January 2000 15:09
Arjan
When the Count of Holland was in Haarlem, he did not come alone. He brought a large number of knights. It were these knights that fought the Frisians from the Drecht (a small river) in 1155 and saved the town. The knights used the Grote Markt, then called 't Sant (the sand) as a jousting-ground. They wanted to live close to it, on the land of the Count, so they've built their small castles, called stinzen, along the square. Under their influence the land rose in value, and after they had left, it could only be afforded by the rich and famous. By now there's nothing left of these small house-castles, but the northern side of the Grote Markt still has the highest land value in Haarlem.
City Hall
Saturday, 01 January 2000 15:07
Arjan
The place of the modern City Hall is where De Beek (the Brook) crosses the old Roman road. It's history is very complicated, as is the lay-out of the building itself. The eldest part is the right-angled battlemented central hall. It's called the Gravenzaal (Count's Hall), and is judging from it's style built in around 1350. Right behind it is another part of the building, now in use as the City-hall, but back in 1350 is was built as the conventual church for the friars of the Dominican's Convent that was founded in 1247. The complex relationship between the two buildings and it's institutions is part of the reason of the complicated history of the building.
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