HOORN

gemeente (commune), Noord-Holland provincie, northwestern Netherlands, on the IJsselmeer (lake). Founded about 1300 and chartered in 1357, it was the capital of medieval West Friesland. Its horn-shaped harbour (for which it is named) was one of the principal ports of the Netherlands until the Zuiderzee silted up in the 18th century. The first great net for herring fishing was made in Hoorn in 1416. Willem Schouten (who discovered the passage around Cape Horn ), Jan Coen (the Dutch East Indian empire builder), and Abel Tasman (discoverer of Tasmania) were born in Hoorn. Hoorn is now a market centre for vegetables and dairy products; other economic activities include fishing, printing, the building of plastic boats, and the manufacture of textiles and electrical machinery. Two medieval churches survive, the Gothic Noorder Church and the Ooster Church. The St. Mary tower (1508) and the east gate (1578) remain of the original fortifications. Other notable buildings are the town hall (1613), the hospital of St. John (1563), the 17th-century Bossu houses, the St. Pietershof (an almshouse established 1617), the Weighhouse (1609), and the West Frisian Museum (1632). Pop. (1988 est.) 53,788.