Edam

Culture
Edam is a small town and therefore has no important cultural life. It does have the local pubs and has merged with Volendam to Edam-Volendam. There is more cultural life in Volendam as its population is 22’000 and Edams merely 7’000.

Traditions
The most popular of traditions in Edam is the cheese market. It earned the right to have a cheese market early on and held them until 1922. The cheese was brought in from local farmers and carried to the market by the famous cheese carriers. Nowadays the cheese market is open again as a re-enactment every Wednesday between July and August 10:30 to 12:30. This decision was made in 1989 to boost tourisms in the region.

Religion
As Edam is a rather small town, it does not have many buildings to represent its religious ties. In fact it only has one historic religious building – the St. Nicolas Church. The St. Nicolas Church (Sint Nicolaaskerk)was built in the beginning of the 15th Century and was of cathedral dimensions. It suffered two fires both by lightning strikes to the tower. Subsequently, the second time it was rebuilt it came with a smaller tower to prevent more of these fires. The many stained glass windows are generous donation by surrounding towns and the flourishing guilds of Edam made in 1602 when it was rebuilt. The St. Nicolas church is one of the largest churches in Europe with 3 ridges.

 Events
The only event in Edam is the cheese market held between July and August held from 10:30 to 12:30. It was revived as a tourist attraction in 1989. You can still buy cheese there, but not as much as earlier. This is because Edam cheese has become very popular internationally; it does not have the capacity to run a full scale cheese market as well as sell it to big clients, also Edam is only a small town it would be very inefficient to sell it on a cheese market.

Culinary Specialties
As Edam is a small town it has three regular restaurants with Dutch cuisine.

Of course the specialty of Edam is the Edamer; the cheese, that was originally only sold on the cheese market.

Lifestyle
Edam is a regular Dutch town. You will see people on bikes as in any other Dutch town. Most of the people go to places nearby for more action. The closest is Volendam. Other close places with more hustle and bustle nearby are Amsterdam and Alkmaar.

Sights
In Edam there are 5 sights, whereas the cheese market is only on Wednesdays between July and August.
The St. Nicholas Church is a large church, exceptionally large when putting it into contrast with the size of Edam.

The old Town Hall built in 1737 in the Louis XIV style. Today it still serves as the place for marriage ceremonies.

The Edam Museum: The museum portraying the famous Dutch cheese Edamer. It is the oldest building in Edam (built in 1530).

Carillon; it used to be a church but was demolished in 1882. The Carillon tower survived and the bells still play their short melody every 15 minutes. In 1972 it nearly fell, but it was subsequently stabilized with metal girders and completely restored.