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Dutch Municipality Hoorn 2006png dn=5265 de=507
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5249 land=1987 water=3262
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68,808 population_year=(2005) density=3,463
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GO van Veldhuizen
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D66
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is a municipality and a city in the
Netherlands , in the province of
North Holland . It is located on the
IJsselmeer , and acquired
City Rights in
1357 .
The municipality of Hoorn consists of the following cities, towns, villages and/or districts:
Blokker , Hoorn,
Zwaag .
Founded in
1357 , Hoorn rapidly grew to become a major harbour town. During Holland's 'Golden Century', Hoorn was an important home base for the
Dutch East India Company ( VOC ) and a very prosperous centre of trade. The Hoorn fleet plied the seven seas and returned laden with precious commodities. Exotic spices such as
Pepper ,
Nutmeg ,
Cloves and mace were sold at vast profits. With their skill in trade and seafaring, sons of Hoorn established the town's name far and wide.
Jan Pieterszoon Coen (
1587 -
1629 ) is famous for his violent raids in
Dutch Indies (now
Indonesia ), were he "founded" the city of
Batavia in
1619 (now
Jakarta ). He has a big statue on the Roode Steen square in the center of Hoorn.
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In
1618 Willem Ysbrandtsz Bontekoe (
1587 -
1657 ) undertook his first and only voyage for the
VOC . His story of his travel and hardship found its way into the history books when he published his adventures in
1646 under the title ''Journael ofte gedenckwaerdige beschrijvinge van de Oost-Indische reyse van Willem Ysbrantsz. Bontekoe van Hoorn, begrijpende veel wonderlijcke en gevaerlijcke saecken hem daer in wedervaren''. In
1616 , the explorer
Willem Corneliszoon Schouten braved furious storms as he rounded the southernmost tip of
South America . He named it Kaap Hoorn (
Cape Horn ) in honour of his hometown.
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 Frisian 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
1960 s, 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.
On the 26th of March 2007, Hoorn will celebrated 650 years as a city. In 1357 Hoorn was awarded city rights by the count of Holland after a lump sum payment of 1500 "schilden" into the counts bank account.
For the Count of Horne see
Eighty Years' War .
The municipal council of Hoorn consists of 33 seats, which are divided as follows:
- PvdA - 11 seats
- V.O.C. Hoorn - 6 seats
- CDA - 4 seats
- VVD - 4 seats
- GroenLinks - 4 seats
- Hoornse Senioren Partij - 2 seats
- D66 - 1 seat
- Hoorns Belang - 1 seat
Hoorn is connected to the Dutch railway network, and contains two stations: Hoorn and Hoorn Kersenboogerd (hn and hnk on
Lines 13 and 21). Also, it is the starting point of the historical
Railway Between Hoorn And Medemblik .
