Home of the Prince, and the first Elysium in the city. See also History. It's a huge medieval hall, quite simple in form, but also very old. It's built in the fourteenth century, and has served as the Prince's home for a long time.
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.
Archeological research in 1970 has revealled that there was an older version of the fourteenth century Gravenzaal, right behind it. Remains of a heavy, wooden structure have been found in the basement of the Gravenzaal. The finds are dated 1250, but it's origins lay further back in time.
In 1247 the Convent of the Dominicans was founded, probably occupying the space between the younger dunes and the Grote Markt, right behind what was then the count's hall. The Hollandse Kroniek (Chronicle of Holland) also mentions the founder: Count William II. Successor Floris V grants the Concent in 1287 a piece of land for expansion. The Count could only do that if the land was originally his. The land around the Grote Markt probably was in the possession of the Counts of Holland from the twelfth century. This arrangement agrees with a pattern, found in a lot of towns in the North of Germany, which makes it very probable that Haarlem was no exception to the rule.
The first written proof of the existence of the Count of Holland in Haarlem is in the Annalen van Egmond (Annals of Egmond). For the year 1132 the annals mention the Kennemers, a group of people living just north of Haarlem, in an area now identified with Kennemerland. They are angry with the Count, and burn his residence and it's annexes in Haarlem, right under his face:
'Usque Harlem perduxerunt et una cum Fresonibus antiquorum comitum domos et cuncta circumcirca edificia aspiciente comitae combusserunt'
The important point about this is the word antiquorum. That tells us the Count has been there for quite a time. The annals only tells us there are buildings. They were probably modest wooden buildings. Proof of a fortified building of the Count is from 1204, when the bisshop of Utrecht and Lodewijk van Loon, a local nobleman are being chased, again by the Kennemers, and hide in the Count's fortified dwelling in Haarlem.
In all these cases it's only wooden buildings we're talking about. After 700 years the findings are few. In the basement of the Gravenzaal are a couple of pile-holes. Further research has prooved that these are dated from around 1200. It's no more than a collection of holes in the ground with remains of wood. There is no pattern, so it could have been anything. It could just have been the only remains of the foundation of an early thirteenth century structure, a predecessor of the current building.
There was a discussion about the court of the count not being on the site of the Gravenzaal. Historically, it is not sufficiently proven that it was there, and the famous Dutch historian Johan Huizinga has placed it elsewhere in town. There is a location, popularly called 'Oud Haerlem' or old Haarlem, near the medieval city prison. He gives quite a lot of proof for it as well, and his essay on Haarlem raised a lot of doubts about the established tradition. The historian Henderikx however, found in his study about the mendicant orders that the terrain on which Oud Haerlem is situated was not inhabitable until much later. In the time of the earliest written proof of the existence of the count there was only peat-land there. It's in a part of town called 'de Bakenes', that was reclaimed in the beginning of the fourteenth century. The solid evidence for this however, can only be found on the exact location of the Huizinga thesis. No archeological dig can take place there, because of a monumental eighteenth century almshouse that's built on top of it.
The eighteenth century historian Bernardus de Jonghe mentions the town-fires that took place between 1347 and 1351. The town-hall, the convent and the old Count's hall all went up in smoke. This can clearly be found in the archeological remains right behind the Gravenzaal. Bernardus also mentions a rearrangement of the landed property between the convent and the court of the count of Holland. After that, the Gravenzaal and the conventual church were built. It seems that the rearrangement was about the giving of land by the count to the convent. In 1388 the city has to buy it's own basement, when it pays the convent for the land under the Gravenzaal.
By then, the Count of Holland had already decided to leave Haarlem for Delft. Duke Albrecht reaches an agreement with the Order of the Knights of St. John in Haarlem in 1360: when the Count decides to stay for the night in Haarlem, he can sleep in the quarters of the Order. There is no proof for a change in ownership of the Gravenzaal in the meantime, but it is very probable.
The Gravenzaal has a small but nice right-angled building attached to it, at the front. It's built upon the old Roman road, which can still be traced in the streets of Koningsstraat - Grote Markt - Barteljorisstraat. Apparently, by that time the town of Haarlem had reached such a position that it was able to function as an important trading post. The merchants coming from the South and going to the North or vice versa didn't go right through Haarlem like before. Now they stopped there to trade.
The little tower was added to the Gravenzaal in 1465, and a very prominent wing was added in 1620. It was designed by the city's architect Lieven de Key, and it is highly characteristic for the whole building.
