The main market square is the Waagplein, with the most photogenic building of Alkmaar, the Waag or weighing-house. It forms the backdrop for most postcards of the Alkmaar cheese market. The Waag now houses the Kaasmuseum (Cheese Museum). The building was originally a chapel, built around 1390, and converted to a municipal weigh-house in 1582.
Waag and market
The famous cheese market is no longer a real market, but a show for tourists. Cheese is no longer traded among cheese-traders, but produced and distributed from factories, like most food products. The replica cheese market, with cheese porters in traditional costumes, is held every Friday morning in spring and summer, from 10.00 to 12.30.
The Cheese Museum is open from 27 March to 4 November, from 10.00 to 16.00, open one hour earlier on Friday, closed Sunday, entrance € 2,50.
The city's tourist office or VVV is in the ground floor of the Waag, and forms the entrance to the Cheese Museum. VVV, Waagplein 2, 1811 JP Alkmaar. Tel. 072 - 5114284, fax 072 - 5117513, e-mail: [email protected].
Just north of the Waagplein is the national beer museum, Biermuseum de Boom, housed in a 17th-century brewery at Houttil 2. This was one of the largest breweries in Alkmaar. Beer was drunk in huge quantities in medieval towns, which rarely had a safe supply of drinking water. Alkmaar brewers brought clean water in barrels, from streams or ponds in the dunes: at the quayside they were lifted by a special crane. Open Tuesday to Friday 12.00 - 17.00, Saturday and Sunday 13.00 - 16.00, during the cheese market 10.00 - 17.00. The bar serves 86 kinds of beer. Entrance € 3.50, children € 1.75. Museum website: .
South of the Waagplein is the Vismarkt or fish market, at the corner of Mient and Verdronkenoord. Until the 19th century, most food and agricultural products were traded on street markets. The larger the town, the more specialized street markets it had. The names of these markets survive as street names in old European cities: for instance, Haymarket / Heumarkt / Hooimarkt. The Hague has a Kalvermarkt, Varkenmarkt, and a Dagelijkse Groenmarkt - calves market, pigs market, and daily vegetable market. Alkmaar also has a Paardenmarkt (horse market) and a Turfmarkt: turf was the main domestic fuel until about 1870.
Fish market
The simple covered fish stalls were first built in the 16th century, and renovated around 1755. In the 19th century. Fish were sold here until 1998. The columns (first wood, later stone) were replaced with cast-iron pillars. The fish were sold on the stone tables, usually after being kept in baskets in the canal behind the stall. The door gave access to the canal, which was also to transport the fish: similar fish stalls in other old towns also back onto a canal. The pomp dates from 1785, and was renewed in 1882. Another typical feature of these fish stalls are the copper grilles on the drains: the salt (used to preserve fish) would corrode iron grilles.
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Alkmaar Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
