engineering

Haarlem City Hall

Haarlem City Hall is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Haarlem City Hall rather than just read about it. In short: The City Hall in Haarlem is the seat of the city's government. It was built in the 14th century replacing the Count's castle.

Key takeaways

Haarlem City Hall belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Haarlem City Hall to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Haarlem City Hall from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The City Hall in Haarlem is the seat of the city's government. It was built in the 14th century replacing the Count's castle.

History

A wooden structure was erected on the site of the current Gravenzaal of the City Hall around 1100. In 1955, remnants of this structure were discovered. After large fires in 1347 and 1351, William I, Duke of Bavaria who was also the Count of Holland at that time, donated the remains of the Gravenzaal to the city's municipality. A new building was built there. The central square building dates from the Middle Ages, but the distinctive façade of the building was designed by architect Lieven de Key and built from 1602-1604. The way it originally looked can be seen in a painting from 1460 by the Master of Bellaert. Originally the city hall was just the front of the building, and the rear cloister belonged to the Dominican brotherhood. After the Protestant Reformation this came into the possession of the city council and it is now a large complex with offices and meeting rooms. Both the Frans Hals Museum and the Haarlem Public Library originally were located in the city hall.

The town hall is still used for civic weddings and nearly every Friday in Spring, brides can be seen entering and leaving by the main stairway. All year on Saturdays and Mondays there is a big market in front of the City Hall, where on Saturdays mainly flowers, household goods, and food is sold, though on Mondays the products are mainly cloth, sewing accessories and clothing. Although the market is frequented by the local population, it is also a tourist attraction and worth a visit, if only to try the raw herring from the fish stand, or stroopwafels from the stroopwafel stand. The town hall is also still used for state visits, most recently when the King and Queen paid a visit to Haarlem on 14 June 2013. They heard the local choir Zang en Vriendschap sing and received a book about all the previous royal state visits to Haarlem.

The town hall was traditionally a gathering place for various gentlemen, and the Dutch Society of Science started meeting there in 1752, which was the beginning of a municipal museum for natural history, that today no longer exists, though its "competitor" founded in 1781 still does; namely the Teylers Museum. When they moved out, the paintings stayed and they became the Haarlem municipal museum, which moved out in 1913 to become the Frans Hals museum.

Inside A large number of paintings and objects from Haarlem's rich history can be found inside the building. One series of paintings depict the various counts of Holland, starting from Dirk I to Maximilian from Austria. In the Middle Ages these paintings were hanging in the Carmelieten Cloister in Haarlem; they were painted between 1486 and 1491. In 1570 it is mentioned in city archives that the paintings were hanging in the City Hall; possibly they were moved there in 1566 to protect them from the iconoclastic riots. Other paintings and objects are either part of the original interior, or too big to fit in the Frans Hals Museum.

References

Het stadhuis van Haarlem: hart van de stad, Wim Cerutti, Haarlem, 2001

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Haarlem City Hall

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Haarlem City Hall claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Haarlem City Hall before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Haarlem City Hall ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Haarlem City Hall

In research: Haarlem City Hall appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Haarlem City Hall in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Haarlem City Hall is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1604 establishments in the Dutch Republic, Buildings and structures completed in 1604, Buildings and structures completed in the 14th century, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Haarlem City Hall outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Haarlem City Hall in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Haarlem City Hall means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Haarlem City Hall out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Haarlem City Hall in simple terms?

The City Hall in Haarlem is the seat of the city's government. It was built in the 14th century replacing the Count's castle.

Why does Haarlem City Hall matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Haarlem City Hall?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Haarlem City Hall.