From Friday evening 11 October to Sunday 13 October 2024, an international conference on the history of the European Princely/Royal Houses will take place in Leeuwarden’s historic Town Hall. The meeting is in the regal ambience of the Orange Hall. The Nassau and Friesland Foundation invites you to attend this weekend as a guest! We’ll […]
Early November I headed for Leeuwarden to see two exhibitions. “Vrijheid, Vetes, Vagevuur” (Freedom, Feuds, Purgatory) at the Fries Museum has several references to nobility, but isn’t specifically about nobles or royals. It deals with the lost world of Tota Frisia in the full and late Middle Ages, when the Frisians were still free people […]
Six years ago I attended the unveiling of a wall painting for Maria Louise on the wall around the corner of the Princessehof in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. On 20 June 2015 it was one of her descendants, King Willem-Alexander, who personally came to Leeuwarden. The painting was created on the occasion of the Year of […]
Detail. Nicholas Hilliard, Queen Elizabeth I, circa 1575 © National Portrait Gallery, Londen. Bought 1965 with thanks to the Art Fund.
The last of the exhibitions I already visited late September. This exhibition is on display at the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden. The exhibition From 11 September 2021 to January 9 2022 the outstanding collection of portraits from the National Portrait Gallery, London, will be on view in Leeuwarden. The exhibition Icons: Masterpieces from the National […]
Photo & Copyright: Fries Museum, Leeuwarden
The museum will finally be allowed to open its doors on 5 June 2021! Luckily the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, despite of Covid-19 could receive media who want to report about the collection. I managed to make an appointment for Friday 2 April 2021 to see their newest exhibition “Haute Bordure“. Whether you’re […]
Let’s hope museums can open their doors soon again. They have been forced to close their doors here in the Netherlands because of Covid-19 on 15 December 2020. Honestly I think the museums and many people can’t wait until they open again. There is one exhibition I particularly hope to visit soon, as it is […]
2020 was going to be the Year of Willem Lodewijk. 400 years after his death Count Willem Lodewijk of Nassau-Dillenburg was to be commemorated in the city of Leeuwarden all year long. This man, who during his lifetime always lived in the shadow of his more famous cousins Maurits and Frederik Hendrik, Princes of Orange […]
It is quite a special experience having a museum nearly for yourself. At the moment you have to buy a ticket beforehand, so you never know. It was my very first visit to one of the Museumhuizen of the Vereniging Hendrick de Keyser, and honestly I wouldn’t mind visiting more of them, as it was […]
My first museum visits after the start of the covid-19 crisis were happily a good experience. While the terraces and streets in the city centre of Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, in the afternoon were too packed to my liking – it was great weather – I went off to see two museums, and afterwards had a […]
Finally a live “royal” event again. Museums in the Netherlands were allowed to open their doors again on 1 June. On Saturday 20 June I attended the opening of the new permanent exhibition “The Princessehof of Maria Louise” at the Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. The building was once the city […]
