Landmarks

St Bavo or Great Church - see 1300 Laurens Coster - see 1430 Hannie Schaft - see 1945

3500 B.C. Stone axes found from this period.

2000 B.C. First evidence of settlement in the area.

ca 50 B.C. The Romans establish a fort in Velsen.

918 The name 'Haarlem' first appears .

1245 Count William II declares Haarlem a city.

ca 1300 Work starts on the St Bavo Church on the main square.

1395 The first 'hofjes' (courtyard houses) in Holland are built for the poor by Dirk van Bakenes.

1430 The refugee Fleming Laurens Coster invents printing in Haarlem (according to the people of Haarlem!).

1572 Siege of Haarlem by the Spanish which lasts seven months before Haarlem capitulates.

1656 Abraham Casteleyn prints the first newspaper in Europe in Haarlem.

1811 Emperor Napoleon makes a visit to Haarlem.

1813 Haarlem established as the capital of the province 'Holland'.

1899 The first electric tram in Holland runs in Haarlem.

1945 Hannie Schaft, a resistance heroine, is murdered by order of the Gestapo.

1995 Haarlem celebrates its 750th anniversary as a city.