Hoorn

Hoorn was one of the six chambers of the Dutch East India Company and a wealthy Zuiderzee port, and the town centre is its seventeenth century: the Roode Steen square with the Waag and the Westfries Museum in the former States College building, warehouses along the Binnenhaven, the Hoofdtoren of 1532 on the harbour mouth, and merchant houses with carved gables. Willem Schouten of Hoorn rounded the southern tip of South America in 1616 and named it Kaap Hoorn after the town, which is how a Dutch port ended up attached to the most feared passage in sailing. Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the Company governor-general responsible for the massacre of the Banda islanders in 1621, was also from here and his statue on the square has been repeatedly contested and vandalised, with a plaque added to address what he did.

History

An old Frisian legend says the town was founded in 719 by Hornus, a son of King Redbad, and named after him. Hoorn gained city rights in 1357 and flourished in the Dutch Golden Age as a port with one of the six chambers of the Dutch East India Company; it was also the seat of the Admiralty of the Noorderkwartier from 1589 to 1795 (Wikipedia, Hoorn).

What's there

• A Company chamber town - one of six chambers of the Dutch East India Company.
• The Hoofdtoren of 1532 - the harbour tower at the entrance to the old port.
• The Cape Horn connection - named by Schouten of Hoorn in 1616.
• The Coen statue argument - contested and annotated over the 1621 Banda massacre.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Before you go

The Westfries Museum closes on Mondays. The steam railway to Medemblik runs a seasonal timetable. The Coen statue and its history are a live local dispute rather than a settled matter.

Nearby

Enkhuizen and the Zuiderzee Museum are east; Medemblik is north by steam train.

Key facts