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The narrow houses that line the canals in Amsterdam once housed the wealthiest and most illustrious families in the city.
The Cromhout family was one of these.
Setting out on my bike and riding along the canals, I passed throngs of tourists out enjoying a sunny break in the otherwise rainy afternoon. Searching for the Biblical Museum, I eyed each of the canal houses until finally finding the correct one and parked my bike. Trying the door, I discovered it to be locked.
Noticing a couple of people entering the adjacent doorway, I glanced upwards to find that it was the entrance to the Cromhout Museum. Amazingly enough, I found that the Cromhout Museum and the Bible Museum are housed in the Cromhouthuis and are covered under one ticket price. Two for the price of one is always good!
Problem was…I wasn’t quite sure what the Cromhout Museum was.
Years ago, Amsterdam’s elite sought to fill their time by traveling and collecting treasures from around the globe to decorate their beautiful homes. Displaying their costly possessions was relished and provided fodder for conversations during parties. The items were collected during their travels and nothing was deemed irrelevant…portraits, silver, preserved sea creatures, clocks, skulls…anything that made the owners appear to be more worldly and offer up opportunities for debate and discussion was what was sought after.
The Cromhouthuis is a collectors’ house, telling the story of the Cromhout family and is today home to some extraordinary Amsterdam collections.
During my visit to the Cromhouthuis, an exhibit was displayed entitled “Gold! Watches and Jewelry by Sophia Lopez Suasso”. Sophia Lopez Suasso-de Bruijn (1816-1890), the daughter of a Dutch merchant, was a unique collector who enjoyed amassing nineteenth-century watches by famous makers, gem-encrusted brooches and ingenious snuff boxes from Switzerland, France and Italy. After marrying Lord Augustus Pieter Lopez Suasso, scion of a Portuguese Jewish family in 1860, she began her collection during their frequent travels around Europe, where they also acquired bronze sculpture, medals and coins, books and costumes. Upon her husband’s death in 1877, she continued to collect and remained a regular customer of H. Martens Jewelers in Amsterdam.
In 1888, Sophia purchased the contents of the Museum Broeker House and established in her will that her own house be dedicated as a museum upon her death. The city, to whom she left her estate, deemed her home unsuitable and instead built the Stedelijk Museum to accommodate her collection which includes watches in unique forms, such as animals, flowers, fruit and musical instruments, each with hidden switches to reveal the actual watch. All of the watches and jewelry were made of gold and decorated with diamonds, gems and enamel.
The Suasso collection is disbursed throughout the Cromhout Museum, mainly on the second level, and is interspersed with the family’s prized collections. The home itself is also worth inspection as it gives a glimpse into the way of life that the families of this time period were accustomed.
When visitors to the Cromhout family arrived, they were received in the Antechamber, where a cabinet of curiosities, its drawers and cabinets filled with extraordinary natural phenomena, exotic items and unique hand-made artifacts, was located. The guests were then allowed into the Grand Salon, where parties were held and guests were entertained. The family’s art collection, a symbol of their status, was highlighted during a stroll around the first floor.
Artist Jacob de Wit, then young and relatively unheard of, was commissioned to paint the ceiling of the Cromhouthuis in 1718, one of his first ceiling pieces. The grand work of art depicts twelve Olympic gods, surrounded by personifications of the seasons, the points of the compass and the zodiac.
Two kitchens are also located in the home, one small and one large. The large, used for cooking since construction, was located in the basement so that temperatures remained cool and food stayed fresher for longer periods of time. The small kitchen, older than the rest of the home, was incorporated into the construction from a smaller house on the property. The red and green tiles were sourced from the Swedish island of Öland in the Baltic Sea.
In the rear of the property, the Cromhouthuis garden, is worth stepping out for a look, especially during a nice Dutch day. Although once longer than it is today, the design is one of order and symmetry and quite beautiful during the spring.
Since the Biblical Museum is also located on the premises, many biblical references were added to the garden’s design by landscape architect Jan Van Der Horst who incorporated an 18th century geometric pattern into the design and decorated the garden with plants and trees featured in the bible. The pools with stepping stones are a reference to the crossing of the Red Sea and the sculpture by Martie Van Der Loo represents the Apocalypse.
Finally, I made my way to the top floor of the Cromhouthuis, home of the Bible Museum, making sure to admire and appreciate the elaborate staircase commissioned for the Cromhout home.
Since 1975, the upper floors of the Comhouthuis have housed the Biblical Museum. Having expected to find rows upon rows of dusty books, I instead found a light airy space consisting of biblical models, antiquities, archaeological finds and first edition bibles.
The main room exhibits many ancient texts, including the oldest Bible printed in the Netherlands, dating from 1477, a first edition of the 1637 Dutch Authorized Version and the Van Noordwijk collection, an assemblage of religious books with silver coverings. A facsimile copy of a Dead Sea scroll from Qumran containing the Book of Isaiah is also highlighted.
Adjacent rooms exhibit models of temples including a famous model of the Tabernacle, commissioned by the founder of the museum, Rev Leendert Schouten. This 19th century reconstruction uses materials mentioned in the Bible, including goat’s wool imported from Syria for the awning and sand from the Sinai desert.
Egyptian antiquities are also displayed including artifacts collected by Schouten in the 19th century. Inscribed stone slabs, funerary figurines, canopic jars (for mummified remains), scarabs, statues of the gods and a sarcophagus were intended to be laid out around the Tabernacle to give visitors an impression of the religious life of the ancient Egyptians. The most impressive item is a complete mummy of a young woman. Other unique items include oil lamps, clay tablets, earthenware, shards of pottery and coins.
Be sure to climb up to the loft area to observe varying photographic presentations.
Though my intentions were to only visit the Biblical Museum, I must admit that visiting the Cromhouthuis and its exhibition on the Soussa collection were the highlight of the my outing. Though probably not a museum that I would have picked out of a guidebook, it was a wonderful way to spend a drizzly afternoon and learn about the illustrious history of the Netherlands and their .
But let’s not forget the Bibles…they were pretty cool too!
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Cromhouthuis
- https://www.cromhouthuis.nl/en
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Address: Herengracht 368, Amsterdam
- Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 1100-1700. Closed Monday
- Admission: Adults, 10€, Children 0-18 years, free. CJP, Student Card, 6,50€, Museumcard, I Amsterdam City Card, Stadspass, Rembrandtpass, ICOM and Holland Pass voucher, free. Ticket also valid for Bible Museum, located on top floor.
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Admission includes free audio tour
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Gold!, this year’s winter show, is on display until 2 April 2018Bijbels Museum (Biblical Museum)
- https://www.bijbelsmuseum.nl/en
- Address: Herengracht 366-368, Amsterdam
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Hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 1100-1700
- Admission: Adults, 10€, Children 0-18 years, free. CJP, Student Card, 6,50€, Museumcard, I Amsterdam City Card, Stadspass, Rembrandtpass, ICOM and Holland Pass voucher, free. Ticket also valid for Cromhout Museum, located on bottom floors.