Medieval Alkmaar
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Ongoing
Alkmaar, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
There’s a nickname for people from around northern Holland: cheese heads (in Dutch: kaaskoppen).
It’s not a compliment.
The city of Alkmaar turns this nickname around during one weekend in June, when the medieval centre is transformed into Kaeskoppenstad (cheese head city).
Some 400 volunteers dress up in costumes and roam the narrow brick streets as washer women, fish wives, lepers, beggars, aristocats and whores.
It’s all to commemorate the year 1573, when Alkmaar came under seige by the Spanish, during the Dutch war for independence.
Things weren’t looking good for the Dutch elsewhere. But, thanks to the cheeseheads’ stout resistence, the tide of battle began to turn in Alkmaar. The Spanish were routed, the Dutch declared themselves a republic, and the rest is history.
