The Westfries Museum

The Westfries Museum is a historical and cultural museum situated in Hoorn, it was opened on the 10th of January 1880, in a Monumental building ‘Statencollege’, which dates back to 1632, the building originally belonged to the Gecommitteerde Raden van West-Friesland en het Noorderkwartier, as a part of the Staten van Holland en West-Friesland, and later became a court. Until 1932 part of the building housed the kanton’s court and part of its museum.

The Statencollege stands on the location of one of the first brick houses of Hoorn, the Provost house. A late-medieval arched cellar is one of the few reminders of this building.

In 1994 the museum was extended with a municipal monument that originally consisted of two houses. In 1790 the buildings got one façade in classicistic style, after a design of architect Leendert Viervant. The beautiful monumental fence closing off the courtyard dates from 1729.

You can find extensive collections of painting, porcelain, historical firearms, silver objects, VOC objects and objects of the schutterij. the Westfries Museum comprises over 30,000 objects, which paint a perfect picture of the cultural history of the region. collections can be dated back to 1500 and 1800s’: the build-up, prime, and aftermath of the Golden Age.

The night the museum was celebrating its 125th anniversary on the 10th of January 2005, Four people stole 21 paintings. paintings included a piece by Jan van Goyen, and part of a silver collection, the value of the paintings and objects was…