Museum Willet Holthuysen

On the east end of the Herengracht canal lies the small and elegant Museum Willet Holthuysen which can be a perfect closure for your stroll. The Willet-Holthuysen Museum is a double-fronted townhouse built in 1687, towards the end of Amsterdam’s Golden Age. It was occupied by various families. You had to be very wealthy to live in a house like this, on one of the city’s smartest canals. This was certainly true of Abraham Willet and his rich wife Sandrina Louisa Geertruyda Holthuysen, who lived here from 1861 to 1895. Their lives feature strongly throughout the museum.

When Louisa died on 30 January 1895, she bequeathed the house, its valuable contents, and her husband’s extensive art collection to the City of Amsterdam. The following year, the doors were opened and the final wishes of the former lady of the house were fulfilled; her beloved home was transformed into a museum named after herself and her husband. Museum Willet Holthuysen, now managed by the Amsterdam Museum, is still open to the public more than a hundred years later.

The house is open all year round. You can look around the splendid 18th and 19th-century period rooms. The impressive ballroom, conservatory, and dining room bear witness to Willet-Holthuysen’s lifestyle. The kitchen and scullery in the basement give a good impression of the day-to-day life of their servants. At the back of the double-fronted canal, the house is a formal French-style symmetric garden, which was reconstructed in 1972.

Description of Willet Holthuysen Museum by : https://www.willetholthuysen.nl/en/about/about-museum