History
Hotel ’t Heerenlogement was built around 1650 and has been used as a hotel ever since. There is a deed from 1654 showing that the hotel was purchased for 10 gold florins. This hotel with long history was smaller in those days than it is now.
The Harlingen museum ’Het Hannemahuis’ has a 130-year old guest book of the hotel on display.
Jacob van Lennep mentioned 't Heerenlogement in the diary of his walk across the Netherlands in 1823, which was later published, describing himself as a satisfied guest.
Thanks to its location along the canals, Hotel 't Heerenlogement has always been a checkpoint during the Elfstedentocht. The first Frisians began skating this ‘tour of tours’ in 1845. The route wasn’t officially recognised until 1909. On 2 January 1909 the ‘first’ Elfstedentocht was held with 23 participants, with Minne Hoekstra as the winner.
Harlingen (Harns in Frisian) has had city rights since 1235, which means that the city is older than Leeuwarden, Dokkum and Amsterdam. It is a port city with a long history of fishing and it has been Friesland's main port for almost five centuries. It was also the main gateway to Friesland for many years.
The arrival of immigrants in the sixteenth century, mainly from Holland and Flanders, turned Harlingen into an important trading centre where trade and industry flourished. During these developments, Harlingen focused mainly on the region of Holland and beyond and less on the province of Friesland.
In recent decades, the city gradually lost a lot of its power, trade and influence to cities in the west of the Netherlands. But with the arrival of the Harinxmakanaal, the city continued to play an extremely important role in the flexibility and accessibility of the northern economy. Harlingen remains an attractive, popular business location up to now.