Westfries Museum - Hoorn

The Westfries Museum on the Roode Steen is closed for a long time due to extensive renovation and renewal. In the city and online, you can still discover stories about the history of Hoorn and West Friesland. You can visit the temporary museum location in the Statenpoort on Nieuwstraat in Hoorn. Here, you will experience the multimedia show 'Discover the story of Hoorn'. With the accompanying podwalk or walking guide, you can take a beautiful walk along the city's many monuments.

Or admire the online exhibitions on dedicated websites.
* Pala - Nutmeg Tales of Banda at pala.wfm.nl. This exhibition deals with the history of Indonesia's Banda Islands and the trauma of 1621, when the VOC massacred the population to gain control of the monopoly on nutmeg.
* The Battle of the Zuiderzee, on view from 11 October 2023 at slagopdezuiderzee.wfm.nl. The exhibition takes you back to the year 1573, when this important naval battle took place, a key moment in Hoorn's history.

Once the museum reopens at its own location, you will discover the following stories.

In the early seventeenth century, Hoorn and Enkhuizen helped write world history. They became powerful and prosperous through trade with almost the entire world. This wealth can still be seen in the VOC towns. The Westfries Museum tells the story of this exciting period in history, with its special and less beautiful sides.

The museum building - a national monument from 1632 - is worth a visit in itself. Its unique creep-through-crawl-through character combined with the magnificent museum collection offers the feeling of walking around in history.

In its changing exhibitions, the museum mirrors this past with the present, producing tantalising similarities and differences.