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HAARLEM |
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Just over fifteen minutes from Amsterdam by train, HAARLEM is an
easily absorbed city of around 150,000 people that sees itself as a cut
above its neighbours and makes a good alternative base for exploring the
province of North Holland, or even Amsterdam itself. The Frans Hals
Museum, in the almshouse where the artist spent his last years, is worth
an afternoon in itself, and there are numerous beaches within easy reach,
as well as some of the best of the bulbfields.
Haarlem was one of the old Republic's most crucial centres, especially
for the arts, and today retains an air of quiet affluence, with all the
picturesque qualities of Amsterdam but little of the sleaze. The core of
the city is Grote Markt and the adjoining Riviervischmarkt, flanked by
the gabled, originally fourteenth-century Stadhuis and the impressive
bulk of the Grote Kerk of St Bavo (Mon-Sat 10am-4pm; ¬1.30). Inside, the
mighty Christian Müller organ of 1738, with its 5000 pipes and Baroque
razzmatazz, is said to have been played by Handel and Mozart, while
beneath, Xaverij's lovely group of draped marble figures represents
Poetry and Music, offering thanks to the town patron for her generosity.
In the choir there's a late-fifteenth-century painting traditionally
(though dubiously) attributed to Geertgen tot Sint Jans, along with
memorials to painters Pieter Saenredam and Frans Hals, both of whom are
buried here. The town's main attraction is the Frans Hals Museum , Groot
Heiligland 62 (Mon-Sat 11am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; ¬4.50), a five-minute
stroll from Grote Markt in the Oudemannhuis almshouse. It houses a good
number of his lifelike seventeenth-century portraits, including (in the
west wing) the "Civic Guard" portraits which established Hals'
reputation. In the Officers of the Militia Company of St George (of
which Hals was himself a member) he appears in the top left-hand corner,
a rare self-portrait. His last, contemplative portraits include the
Governors of the St Elizabeth Gasthuis , painted in 1641. Also on
display are works by Gerard David, Jan Mostaert and the Haarlem
Mannerists, including Carel van Mander, numerous scenes of Haarlem by
Berckheyde and Saenredam, and landscapes by the Ruisdaels. Look out too
for the recently restored and immaculate eighteenth-century doll's
house, modelled on an Amsterdam merchant's house and one of only four of
its type in the country. Hours of painstaking work were put into
producing this tiny piece, at a cost reckoned at half-a-million euros.
Back at the Grote Markt, take a look at the Frans Hals Museum's annexe,
De Hallen (Mon-Sat 11am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; ¬3.40), an old meat-market
building now filled with touring exhibitions and works by Haarlem-based
Kees Verwey, Holland's oldest living painter, whose Impressionistic
watercolours are much loved by senior Dutch aficionados. Just off the
eastern side of Grote Markt, the Teylers Museum , Spaarne 16 (Tues-Sat
10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; ¬4.50; www.teylersmuseum.nl ), is the oldest
museum in the country, founded back in 1778 by wealthy local
philanthropist Pieter Teyler van der Hulst. It should appeal to
scientific and artistic tastes alike, containing everything from
fossils, bones and crystals to weird early sci-fi technology and
sketches and line drawings by Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt and
Claude. Look in on the rooms beyond, which are filled with work by
eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Dutch painters, principally Breitner,
Israëls, Weissenbruch and Wijbrand Hendriks, who was keeper of the art
collection here.
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