Harlingen (Westerlauwers Frisian: Harns) is a city in the Dutch
province of Friesland and the capital of the municipality of the
same name. It is located west of Franeker and north of the
Afsluitdijk on the Wadden Sea. Harlingen belongs to the Frisian
eleven cities. In 2020 the city had 14,740 inhabitants. It is the
fifth largest city in Friesland. The city also includes the hamlets
of IJslumburen, Koetille, Koningsbuurt, Luidum and Ungabuurt.
The port of Harlingen is the most important port in the
province.
Around 1157 Eilwardus
Ludinga founded the monastery Ludingakerke in the village of
Almenum. The monks dug canals to facilitate trade. This made
Ludingakerk one of the richest monasteries in Friesland. The
neighborhood west of Almenum, Harlingen, became so important that it
received city rights in 1234. This makes Harlingen as a city older
than, for example, Leeuwarden, Dokkum, Franeker or Amsterdam.
Northwest of Harlingen at that time still lay the city of Griend
with gates, canals and even a college. Today Griend is only a
sandbar in the Wadden Sea. The name Harlingen probably comes from
the state of Harlinga. In 1311 "Harlingen" appeared in English port
registers. In 1579, envoys from the city signed the Union of Utrecht
and on December 22, 1634, Harlingen received his patent from the
States of Friesland for Groenlandsch and Strait Daevids fishing
(whaling).
Harlingen has existed for two centuries, located
on a bogtigen corner of the coast, in the shadow of the university
town of Franeker. But prosperity steadily increased due to the
connection with the sea. The city used to be more westerly than
today, but the sea regularly washed away land. In 1543 and 1565 they
expanded in a northerly direction, so that the Noorderhaven became
the Binnenhaven, which it still is today. On the afternoon of 17 May
1568, to the surprise of the Harlingen, 1800 Walloon soldiers were
put ashore, who were later defeated in the battle of Heiligerlee.
After the storm surge in the summer of 1573, parts of the dyke
to the north and south of Harlingen inland had to be newly
constructed. The Spanish colonel Caspar de Robles regularly extorted
money from the population for the wages of his soldiers. In 1574,
now stadholder, he was slow to provide food for the dyke workers and
there was also a threat of famine for the citizens of the city.
Moreover, they were not allowed to leave the city on pain of
forfeiting their property. The planned dike height of 12 feet got
stuck at 10 feet.
In 1579, an expansion to the east followed,
partly due to the influx of Flemish Mennonites who fled the Catholic
repression in the Southern Netherlands. Due to this extension, which
was completed in three months, the church of Almenum was now within
the city fortresses. Trade to the countries around the North Sea and
Baltic Sea increased and in 1598 the city was expanded again, now in
a southerly direction. In 1596, the oldest surviving stone house was
built, De Vergulde Engel, on Lanen 28. The building can be visited
every year on Monument Day.
In 1644 the Frisian Admiralty of
Dokkum came to Harlingen. The Zuiderhaven was given the character of
a naval port. The renowned Tjerk Hiddes de Vries later becomes
Lieutenant Admiral. However, military shipping remained of less
importance than commercial shipping. Numerous skippers maintained
barge trips to the Wadden Islands, to all corners of the province
and to the Zuiderzee ports, of which Amsterdam was the most
important. The city had a lot of industry. There were shipyards,
beer breweries, soap and salt works, stone and potteries, lime
kilns, grain and saw mills. But as was already the case with the
Hanseatic cities on what was then the Zuiderzee, Harlingen was
surpassed by Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the following centuries.
Nevertheless, as a coastal shipping and fishing port with many
amenities and the newly dug Van Harinxma Canal, Harlingen remained
of great economic importance to Friesland and the rest of the
Netherlands.
Orange visits
Harlingen has been visited
several times by the stadholder and later the royal family. The
first visit was from William of Orange.