Teylers Museum

Teylers Museum in Haarlem is regarded as the oldest museum in the Netherlands, and it has changed little in its basic character since it opened to the public in 1784. It was founded under the will of Pieter Teyler van der Hulst, a wealthy Haarlem banker and cloth merchant who died in 1778 and left his fortune to create a foundation for the promotion of the arts and sciences. The building on the Spaarne river, still in use, was designed to house a library, a physics laboratory, a collection of fossils and minerals and an art cabinet, all in the spirit of the Enlightenment, when knowledge was thought to be a way to improve society.

The centrepiece of the museum is the Oval Room, a grand, light-filled hall with a gallery running around it, completed in 1784. It was designed as a place to display the museum's collections of minerals, fossils, scientific instruments and books, and it remains almost unchanged, with its glass cases and wooden fittings, so that walking in feels like entering a room of the eighteenth century. The collection of instruments includes a huge electrostatic generator built for the museum by its first director, Martinus van Marum, which was one of the largest machines of its kind in the world and is still demonstrated. Fossils, including a famous large salamander mistaken in the eighteenth century for a human victim of the Flood, minerals and early scientific apparatus fill the cases.

The art collection is just as notable. The museum owns a large number of drawings by some of the greatest artists in European history, including Michelangelo, Raphael and Rembrandt, which are shown in rotation because paper is sensitive to light, and the picture gallery shows Dutch painting of the nineteenth century. Newer galleries and temporary exhibitions broaden the offering, and some of the historic rooms may be closed for restoration at times, so check what is open before you go. The museum has a cafe and a shop, and admission prices change, with reductions for children, young adults and museum pass holders.

Haarlem makes a good day around the museum. The Grote Markt with its statue of Laurens Janszoon Coster and the great church of St. Bavo is a short walk away, the Frans Hals Museum shows the work of the city's famous painter and the Corrie ten Boom Museum tells the story of a family who sheltered Jews during the Second World War. Haarlem is a short train ride from Amsterdam.

The museum suits curious visitors of all ages, science and art lovers and anyone interested in the Enlightenment. Allow two to three hours for the main rooms.