Museum Willet Holthuysen
Take a peep behind the curtains into a historic Amsterdam canal house. How did the wealthy live in an Amsterdam canal house? You can find all about it in the Willet-Holthuysen Museum.
In 1895 Mrs. Willet-Holthuysen left a will saying that after her death this 17th-century canal house was to become the property of the city of Amsterdam. Together with all that stood in it, which included the art collection made by her late husband, Abraham Willet. Her last will has been faithfully observed for over a century: the house has been turned into a beautiful museum that keeps her family name alive.
On the first floor you find a magnificent ballroom, a dining room, a room looking out over the garden, and an imposing corridor. You gain a good impression of how this wealthy family lived. In other rooms furnishings have been brought from comparable 18th- and 19th-century canal houses, to recreate the atmosphere of bygone times. On the second floor is the romantic bedroom.
In the basement are the kitchen and scullery, suggesting what life must have been like for the servants. At the back of the building is the garden, laid out according to the early 18th-century French fashion.
