Heerhugowaard (;

West Frisian Dutch The West Frisian dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, ...

: ''Heerhugoweard'', ''Heregeweard'' or ''De Weard'') is a city in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, in the province of

North Holland North Holland (, ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht (province), Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevola ...

and the region of West Friesland. Heerhugowaard was previously a separate

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

, which merged with the former municipality of

Langedijk Langedijk (; West Frisian Dutch: ''Langedìk'') is a former municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and the region of West Friesland (region), West-Frisia. Langedijk received City rights in the Netherlands, city rights ...

into the new municipality of

Dijk en Waard Dijk en Waard (West Frisian Dutch: ''Doik en Weard/Weerd'' or ''Dìk en Weard/Weerd'') is a municipality in the province of North Holland and the region of West-Frisia, the Netherlands. It was formed from the merger of Heerhugowaard and Langedij ...

on 1 January 2022.

History

Around the year 800, the area of the modern Heerhugowaard was covered in

peat Peat is an accumulation of partially Decomposition, decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, Moorland, moors, or muskegs. ''Sphagnum'' moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most ...

fen A fen is a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich ground or surface water. It is one of the main types of wetland along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known as mires ...

. Because of peat-digging and storm floods, many lakes developed in the region, including the Heerhugowaard. The name is derived from word ('heer' in Dutch) Hugo van

Assendelft Assendelft () is a town in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is a part of the municipality of Zaanstad. Assendelft was a separate municipality until 1974, when the municipality of Zaanstad was formed. However, Assendelft didn't wan ...

who was killed by the West

Frisians The Frisians () are an ethnic group indigenous to the German Bight, coastal regions of the Netherlands, north-western Germany and southern Denmark. They inhabit an area known as Frisia and are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland an ...

in this area in 1296. After two storms in 1248, the abbey of Egmond, which had much property in this region, built the ''Schagerdam'' at

Schagen Schagen () is a city and municipality in the northwestern Netherlands. It is located between Alkmaar and Den Helder, in the region of West Friesland (region), West Friesland and the province of North Holland. It received City rights in the Nethe ...

. This became part of the

Westfriese Omringdijk The Westfriese Omringdijk (West-Frisian Circular Dyke) is a dyke system that protected the region of Westflinge, part of the historical region of West-Frisia. Westflinge is now commonly referred to as West-Frisia as the rest of historical W ...

, which protected the pentagon

Alkmaar Alkmaar () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland. Alkmaar is well known fo ...

Medemblik Medemblik () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and the region of West Friesland (region), West-Frisia. It lies immediately south of the polder and former municipality of Wieringermeer. History Med ...

Enkhuizen Enkhuizen () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and the region of West-Frisia. History Enkhuizen, like Hoorn and Amsterdam, was one of the harbour-towns of the VOC, from where overseas trade ...

Hoorn Hoorn () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the northwest of the Netherlands, in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland. It is the largest town an ...

. Uncontrollable increase of the lake had been prevented. In the 17th century private investors decided to drain the lake to create farmland. In 1630 the

polder A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrology, hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as levee, dikes. The three types of polder are: # Land reclamation, Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a ...

was drained and the of land was divided among the investors. In contrast to e.g. the

Beemster Beemster () is a former Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. The Beemster is the first polder in the Netherlands land reclamation, reclaimed from a lake, the water extracted by windmi ...

, the new land was poor quality, and in 1674 there was a proposal to refill the polder, as fishing would be more profitable.

Geography

Heerhugowaard is part of the province of North-Holland and is located in the west of the Netherlands. The

land reclamation Land reclamation, often known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new Terrestrial ecoregion, land from oceans, list of seas, seas, Stream bed, riverbeds or lake ...

of Heerhugowaard is situated 3 metres under sea level. The surrounding land is flat as it is formed of large

s. To the southwest of the city lies

Topography

''Map of Heerhugowaard (town), 2014.''

Climate

Heerhugowaard has a cool

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

''Cfb''), strongly influenced by its proximity to the North Sea to the west, with prevailing north-western winds and gales. Winter temperatures are cool to mild. Heerhugowaard, as well as most of North-Holland province, lies in

USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commerc ...

Hardiness zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most widely ...

9, the northernmost such occurrence in

continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by som ...

Frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor that deposits onto a freezing surface. Frost forms when the air contains more water vapor than it can normally hold at a specific temperature. The process is simila ...

s mainly occur during spells of easterly or northeasterly winds from the inner

European continent Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the eas ...

, from Scandinavia, Russia, or even

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

. Even then, because Heerhugowaard is surrounded on three sides by large

bodies of water A body of water or waterbody is any significant accumulation of water on the surface of Earth or another planet. The term most often refers to oceans, seas, and lakes, but it includes smaller pools of water such as ponds, wetlands, or more ra ...

, as well as enjoying a significant

heat island effect Urban areas usually experience the urban heat island (UHI) effect; that is, they are significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas. The temperature difference is usually larger at night than during the day, and is most apparent when winds ar ...

, nights rarely fall below . Summers are moderately warm but rarely hot. The average daily high in August is . Heerhugowaard's average annual rainfall is , with measurable

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

on an average of 189 days per year. Most is in the form of protracted drizzle or light rain, making cloudy and damp days common during the cooler months of October to March. Only the occasional

European windstorm European windstorms are powerful extratropical cyclones which form as cyclone, cyclonic windstorms associated with areas of low atmospheric pressure. They can occur throughout the year, but are most frequent between October and March, with peak ...

brings significant rain in a short period of time, requiring it to be pumped out to higher ground or to the seas around the city.

Cityscape

Population centres

The former municipality of Heerhugowaard consisted of the following towns, villages and/or districts: Broekhorn, Butterhuizen,

De Noord (meaning 'the North') is a windmill located on the Noordvest 38 in Schiedam, Netherlands. It is the tallest windmill in the world with a roof height of and a wing span of . The mill is one of the five remaining windmills in Schiedam, and has be ...

, Draai,

Frik Frik () was an Armenian poet of the 13th and 14th centuries. He wrote on both secular and religious topics, and many of his poems are characterized by social criticism. He was the first Armenian poet to compose almost all of his works in the verna ...

, Kabel, 't Kruis, Veenhuizen, Verlaat, Oostertocht, Bomenwijk, Schilderswijk, Rivierenwijk, Edelstenenwijk,

Stad van de Zon Stad van de Zon (City of the Sun) is a housing and building project in Heerhugowaard, The Netherlands, based on a concept developed by Bert Smolders, then urban planner with Kuiper Compagnons, and further realized by the architect and urban planner ...

Expansion

Over time the population has grown. In 1960, Heerhugowaard had 6,800 inhabitants; increasing to 25,000 in 1975, 47,239 in 2004 and 48,267 in 2005. In May 2007, Heerhugowaard welcomed its 50,000th inhabitant, exceeding 58,000 by 2021. For several years in the 1970s, Heerhugowaard was the fastest growing municipality in the Netherlands. It is expected that by around 2050, Heerhugowaard will have approximately 100,000 inhabitants, although young people are moving away, so this number might never be reached. The major part of the population lives in so-called Vinex-districts. The rural core of the North lies in the Middenwaard. The core of the south is at Stationsweg by the old church. In the polders there are small hamlets. The greater part of the town is new developments. Heerhugowaard has a number of subdivisions which were set up the same as in

Almere Almere () is a Planned community, planned List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Flevoland, Netherlands across the IJmeer fro ...

, for example the writer district, the tree district, the planet district, and the nature area of Butterhuizen. In two of the newest districts, called

I and II (= City of the Sun I and II) the energy supplies for a considerable part comes from

solar energy Solar energy is the radiant energy from the Sun's sunlight, light and heat, which can be harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating) and solar architecture. It is a ...

Parks

The surroundings of Heerhugowaard are quite varied, including much farmland. with flower bulb fields to the east. In the mid-1980s, 61 hectares of woodland were planted, the "Waarderhout".

Commerce

One

shopping centre A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...

in Heerhugowaard is Middenwaard, owned by

real estate investment Real may refer to: Currencies * Argentine real * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Nature and science * Reality, the state of things as they exist, rath ...

company Wereldhave. Middenwaard was built in five phases. Construction began in 1974, with the last phase completed in 2008, with renovations since then.

Transport

Heerhugowaard has good connections. Buses go to

, Bergen NH, Broek Op Langedijk and Ursem. Also Heerhugowaard has Interliner links. Heerhugowaard railway station is on the routes to

and

Den Helder Den Helder () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Den Helder occupies the northernmost point of the North Holland peninsula. It is home to the country's main naval base. From here the Royal TESO fe ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Nijmegen Nijmegen ( , ; Nijmeegs: ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and the ninth largest of the Netherlands as a whole. Located on the Waal River close to the German border, Nijmegen is one of the oldest cities in the ...

, and

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

. Heerhugowaard is on the N242, the N508 and N507 roads.

Government

The former municipal council of Heerhugowaard consisted of 31 seats, which were divided as follows: ''* = separation of Burgerbelang Elections were held in November 2021 for the newly merged municipality of Dijk en Waard, that included Heerhugowaard, which commenced work in January 2022.

Sister cities

Heerhugowaard has one

sister city A sister city or a twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there are early examples of inte ...

Notable people

Theodorus Dekker Theodorus Jozef Dekker (Dirk Dekker, 1 March 1927 - 25 November 2021) was a Dutch mathematician. Dekker completed his Ph.D. degree from the University of Amsterdam in 1958. His thesis was titled "Paradoxical Decompositions of Sets and Spaces". ...

(1927 – 2021) a Dutch mathematician who developed

Dekker's algorithm Dekker's algorithm is the first known correct solution to the mutual exclusion problem in concurrent programming where processes only communicate via shared memory. The solution was attributed to Dutch people, Dutch mathematician Theodorus Dekker, ...

Sport

Rudi Lubbers Rudi Lubbers (born 17 August 1945) is a Dutch retired professional boxer who competed at the 1964 and 1968 Summer Olympics. In 1964 he finished ninth as a light heavyweight and in 1968 fifth as a heavyweight. Amateur career 1964 Olympic record Be ...

(born 1945) a retired Dutch boxer who competed at the

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

and

1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Mexico 1968 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 October 1968, in Mexico City, Mexico. These were the first Ol ...

* Monique van der Lee (born 1973) a former Dutch judoka, competed at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

Anousjka van Exel Anousjka van Exel (born 5 October 1974) is a Dutch former tennis player. Career She competed in tennis for Tulsa Golden Hurricane. She won a total of eleven titles on the ITF Circuit during her career and reached a doubles ranking high of worl ...

(born 1974) a Dutch former tennis player *

Arvid Smit Arvid Benjamin Smit (born 12 December 1980) is a Dutch football coach and former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is the assistant coach for the Netherlands women's national team. Career Smit was born in Heerhugowaard, No ...

(born 1980) a football coach and former professional footballer with 224 club caps * Stefanie van der Gragt (born 1992) a Dutch footballer * Tess Wester (born 1993) a Dutch handballer and world champion who plays as goalkeeper for the Dutch national team

Gallery

File:Aarde en Water Nic Jonk Heerhugowaard Dolomiet.JPG, Earth and water, by Nic Jonk in Dolomiet Square File:Poldermuseum Heerhugowaard.jpg, Poldermuseum Heerhugowaard File:Intenieur, aanzicht orgel, orgelnummer 639 - Heerhugowaard - 20417152 - RCE.jpg, Dutch Reformed Church - Heerhugowaard File:Heerhugowaard-Alkmaar 25 Jan 2011 - panoramio - Heiloo.jpg, Heerhugowaard-Alkmaar 2011 File:Heerhugowaard molen Veenhuizer.jpg, Veenhuizer windmill

References

External links

*
Official website of former municipality
(2019) {{Authority control Former municipalities of North Holland Populated places in North Holland Polders of North Holland Municipalities of the Netherlands disestablished in 2022 *