The Gruttershop Museum - Leeuwarden

In the old days, long before the age of supermarkets, there were shops for colonial and grocery goods. There, the cash register literally rang and the groceries were handed out in paper cone bags. A 16th-century building on Nieuwesteeg housed such a shop owned by the Feenstra family. The building dates from 1596 and was built as a posh residence for the mayor. The Feenstra family acquired the building in 1901, after a coppersmith had lived there as well.

In 1973, Mrs Feenstra let the cash register ring for the last time and the shop was in danger of being lost. Thanks to the efforts of the Stichting Nieuwesteeg Vijf, many volunteers, sponsors and donors, the museum was given a cultural-historical function and, as soon as you cross the threshold, you step back into the days of yore.

The shelves are full of storage jars and old-fashioned products such as stove polish. The top floor houses an exhibition on the history of the grocery business. In the coffee room, a former living room, you are welcome to enjoy a cup of coffee or tea with orange cake or real Fryske Dúmkes. The 400-year-old wine cellar with its trough vaults used to store the wines, spirits and weck bottles of home-made fruit and vegetables of the Feenstra family.