HAARLEM, a town of Holland in the province of North Holland, on the Spaarne, having a junction station 11 m. W. of Amsterdam by rail. It is connected by electric and steam tram ways with Zandvoort, Leiden, Amsterdam and Alkmaar. Pop. (1926) 111,242.
Haarlem, a prosperous place in the middle of the 12th century, received its first town charter from William II., count of Holland and king of the Romans, in 1245. It played a considerable part in the wars of Holland with the Frisians. In 1492 it was captured by the insurgent peasants of North Holland and was re-taken by the imperial stadholder, and deprived of its privileges. In 1572 Haarlem joined the revolt of the Netherlands against Spain, but in July 1573, after a seven months' siege, was forced to surrender to Alva's son Frederick, who exacted terrible vengeance. In 1577 it was re-captured by William of Orange and permanently incorpo rated in the United Netherlands.
Haarlem is the seat of the governor of the province of North Holland, and of a Roman Catholic and a Jansenist bishopric. It is a typical Dutch town, with numerous narrow canals and gabled houses. Of the ancient city gates the Spaarnewouder or Amster dam gate alone remains. In the Frederiks Park is a pump-room supplied with a powerful chalybeate water from a spring, in the Haarlemmer Polder. In the central market place are the old Fleshers' Hall, built by Lieven de Key in 1603, and now containing the archives, the town hall, the old Stadsdoelen, where the bur gesses met in arms and the Groote Kerk (Great Church). This last, dedicated to St. Bavo, dates from the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Its great length (46o ft.) and the height and steepness of its vaulted cedar-wood roof (1538) are very impressive. The choir-stalls and screen (151o) are finely carved, and of further interest are the ancient pulpit sounding-board (1432), some old stained glass, and the small models of ships, copies dating from 1638 of yet earlier models originally presented by the Dutch Swedish Trading Company. The church organ, constructed in 1738, was long considered the largest and finest in existence. In the belfry are the damiaatjes, small bells presented to the town, according to tradition, by William I., count of Holland (d. 1222), the crusader. The town hall was originally a palace of the counts of Holland, begun in the 12th century, and some old 13th century beams still remain; but the building was remodelled in the beginning of the 17th century. It contains a collection of antiqui ties and a picture gallery celebrated for its fine collection of paintings by Frans Hals. The town library contains several incunabula and a collection of early Dutch literature. At the head of the scientific institutions of Haarlem may be placed the Dutch Society of Sciences (Hollandsche Maatschappij van Wetenschap pen), founded in 1752. Besides these there are the old weigh house (1598) and the orphanage for girls (16o8), originally an almshouse for old men, both built by the architect Lieven de Key of Ghent.
The staple industries of Haarlem have been greatly modified in the course of time. Cloth weaving and brewing declined in the beginning of the 16th century. A century later, silk, lace and damask weaving were introduced by French refugees, and became very important industries; but about the close of the 18th cen tury this remarkable prosperity had also come to an end, and it was not till after 1830 that Haarlem began to develop the manu factures in which it is now chiefly engaged. Cotton manufacture, dyeing, printing, bleaching, brewing, making of paint, type-found ing, and the manufacture of tram and railway carriages are among the more important of its industries. One of the printing establish ments has the reputation of being the oldest in the Netherlands, and publishes the oldest Dutch paper, De Opragte Haarlemmer Courant. Market-gardening, especially horticulture, is extensively practised in the vicinity, so that Haarlem is the seat of a large trade in Dutch bulbs, especially hyacinths, tulips, fritillaries, spiraeas and japonicas.