Hoorn
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LocatieHoorn.png
Locatie gemeente Hoorn
Hoorn (population: 67,952 in 2004) is a municipality and a town in the north-western Netherlands, in the province of North Holland, and was the main market-town for the region of West-Friesland. The municipality covers an area of 52.24 km² (of which 32.93 km² is water).
The municipality of Hoorn also includes the following towns, villages and townships: Blokker, Zwaag.
Hoorn is located on the IJsselmeer. There is a small shell beach opposite the Nieuwsteeg street. There is a historical railway between Hoorn and Medemblik.
VOC-Hoorn.jpg
Flag of the VOC chamber of Hoorn
Hoorn's fortunes declined somewhat in the eighteenth century. The prosperous trading port became little more than a sleepy fishing village on the Zuiderzee. Following the Napoleonic occupation, there was a period during which the town gradually turned its back on the sea. It developed to become the market for the entire West Friesian agricultural region. Stallholders and shopkeepers devoted themselves to trading in dairy produce and seeds. When the railway and metalled roads came to Hoorn in the late nineteenth century, the town rapidly took its rightful place as a conveniently located and readily accessible centre in the network of towns and villages which make up the province of Noord-Holland. In 1932, the Afsluitdijk, or Great Enclosing Dyke, was completed and Hoorn was no longer a seaport.
The years after the Second World War saw a period of renewed growth. At the centre of a flourishing horticultural region, Hoorn developed an extremely varied economy. During the 1960s, Hoorn was designated an 'overflow' city to relieve pressure on the overcrowded Randstad region. Thousands of people swapped their cramped little apartments in Amsterdam for a family house with garden in one of Hoorn's modern new developments.
Another famous person from Hoorn is Jan Pieterszoon Coen (1587-1629) who is famous for his raids in Dutch Indies (now Indonesia). He also founded the city of Batavia (now Jakarta). He has a big statue on the Roode Steen square in the center of Hoorn.
For the Count of Horne see Eighty Years' War.
External link
- Official Website (http://www.hoorn.nl)
- http://www.plattegronden.nl/hoorn/
Template:Province North Holland pde:Hoorn et:Hoorn nl:Hoorn (Noord-Holland) ro:Hoorn