Museum Naarden

Museum Naarden is housed in the Spaanse Huis, the Spanish House, a seventeenth-century building in the fortified town of Naarden, and it tells the story of the town and its dramatic past. Naarden is one of the best-preserved fortress towns in Europe, with its star-shaped ring of bastions and moats still intact, and the museum is one of several places in the town where visitors can learn how this unusual place came to be. The name of the house recalls the Spanish presence during the long war of independence.

Naarden's most terrible hour came in December 1572. Early in the Dutch revolt, the town opened its gates to the Spanish army under Don Frederik, the son of the Duke of Alva, who had promised to spare the people. Instead, the soldiers gathered the citizens in the church and the town hall and killed many of them, and then burned much of the town. The massacre of Naarden became a notorious episode, used in propaganda by the rebels to stiffen resistance, and it has remained a part of local memory for four and a half centuries. The museum places this event in the context of the war and its consequences.

After the massacre, the town was rebuilt and later fortified on a grand scale, becoming a key link in the defence of the Dutch Republic. The museum shows how the town developed, using objects, documents, maps and models, and it also touches on the life of ordinary residents in different periods. The collection includes weapons, uniforms and household objects, and the displays are arranged to give a feeling of the town's character as a garrison community.

Naarden also has a link to Jan Amos Comenius, the Czech educator and religious thinker who spent his last years in exile in Amsterdam and was buried in Naarden in 1670. A museum and mausoleum devoted to him lie in the town, and his memory makes Naarden a place of pilgrimage for Czech visitors. The Grote Kerk, on the Kerkplein, is famed for its painted wooden vault and for the performance of Bach's Saint Matthew Passion each spring.

Museum Naarden suits history lovers and families with older children. Allow an hour, and combine it with the Vestingmuseum, the town hall and a walk along the ramparts. Check opening hours, which may be limited in winter.