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Van Loon Museum: A restored Golden Age house

After the Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder museum and The Canal House Museum, our last stop was the van Loon Museum, a restored Golden Age canal house.

An elegant drawing room with dark red flowered carpet and a scattering of chairs at the Museum van Loon.
I suppose this would be called a drawing room.

This is what I’d been expecting when we visited the Canal House Museum: rooms that give an impression of how wealthy residents of Amsterdam’s Golden Age lived and, to a much lesser extent, how their servants lived. While the van Loon house dates to that period, it is furnished to the style that reflects later – still wealthy – residents.

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History of the house

This museum is named after Willem van Loon, a founder of the Dutch East-India Company (VOC). (Loon is pronounced like “loan”, by the way.) The fact is that a large proportion of the profits from the VOC was based on slavery or on other forms of oppression of native peoples. Nevertheless, houses like this are an enduring and beautiful legacy.

An elegant bedroom in the van Loon Museum. The bedspread, framed sections of wallpaper and the curtans all have a flowery, paisley pattern. A crystal chandelier hangs from the ceiling and the mantel has a huge mirror over it.
I couldn’t resist making this photo sepia. Doesn’t it look Victorian?

Built in 1672, its first resident was Ferdinand Bol, whose paintings can be viewed in the Rijksmuseum. The van Loon family didn’t move in until the late 1800’s. When they did, they filled it with their family’s history, particularly in evidence in the paintings.

The house is intact, inside and out, and has been filled with a collection of articles from several different centuries, which is, I suppose, what would have happened with a patrician family like the van Loons. They would have replaced some pieces and kept some old ones, as any family would.

The dressing table holds glass bottles and brushes at the van Loon Museum in Amsterdam
the dressing table in the bedroom

Exploring the van Loon Museum

There is no set route through the van Loon house, and you are free to wander around at will. There’s a lot to examine, if you’re so inclined: period furniture, paintings, porcelain, decorative moldings, chandeliers, and so on. A few signs explain the elements of each room, and notes on all of the furniture remin visitors not to sit down, but they’ve done a good job at keeping modern intrusions to a minimum. It was quite a restful contrast to the multimedia activity of the Museum of the Canals.

I was particularly drawn to the details: the items laid out on the dressing table in the bedroom, the shiny copper pots on the enormous cast-iron stove down in the kitchen. Perhaps it was because the afternoon light through a cloudy sky was so much like a Vermeer painting.

The cast iron stove with several shiny copper pots on it.
the cast iron stove in the kitchen downstairs

If you’re curious about other small museums to visit in Amsterdam, check out these articles:

The garden

The small garden is laid out in formal style and from the back of the garden you can look back at the house to see its elegant symmetry, somewhat marred by the asymmetry of the houses on either side.

A coach house, closed when we visited, backs the garden. It is usually used to exhibit the van Loon family’s collection of carriages, coaches, and other accoutrements that belong in a coach house.

The building is red brick and symmetrical, with an arched door at the bottom that stands out from the main wall of the building. It supports a small balcony which has a bigger arched door opening onto it. On either side is one column of windows: very long on the ground floor and smaller on the 1st and 2nd, with two very small ones in the roof. The garden in front has neatly trimmed low bushes in a symmetrical geometric pattern. In the center is a golden statue? or sundial?
A view of the house from the back of the garden

It all seemed very much an Amsterdam-based Downton Abbey to me, with its air of old money and women swishing around in long skirts or drinking tea from very delicate china. If that’s what you’d like to see, this small museum is definitely worth a short visit next time you’re in Amsterdam.

The van Loon Museum: Keizersgracht 672 between Vijzelstraat and Reguliersgracht. Take Tram 24 to the Muntplein stop. Open daily 10-17:00. Admission €13.50/$14.50 for adults.

(Last edited July 3, 2023)

If you are going to visit several museums and attractions on your trip to Amsterdam, it might be worth your while to buy the I AMsterdam City Card. It includes admission to a whole list of museums, sights and entertainment in and outside of Amsterdam, plus a canal boat trip and unlimited public transportation.

Pinnable image: 
Image: the same as above of the back of the Van Loon house, but blurred. 
Text: Rachel's Ruminations logo, followed by "The Van Loon Museum: A restored Golden Age house in Amsterdam"

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about Rachel

Hi, I’m Rachel!

Rachel’s Ruminations is a travel blog focused on independent travel with an emphasis on cultural and historical sites/sights. I also occasionally write about life as an expatriate. I hope you enjoy what I post here; feel free to leave comments!  Read more…
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Interesting post, Rachel! I always am amazed just how much history there is in Europe compared to what we have in Canada. Here … something is old (historic) when it’s 100 years old. There … historic can mean that something is several hundred years old, as in the case of the 1672 establishment you’ve mentioned!

This looks so cool. I love seeing history preserved. I especially like how they keep modern distractions to a minimum. It really bothers me when you go into an old house like this and they have televisions set up to tell you about the house. It seems so unauthentic.

Similar to what Doreen said, anything 50-100 years of age is old in Australia!

It makes me feel so young to see places like this (another perk of travel)!

I love all the details in old homes like these. This first thing that came to my mind was Downton Abbey too.

I love the idea of walk around the house and travel to the past. So much history in just one place!
We are travelling to Amsterdam on April with some brazilian friends, your posts about the museum and the city arrived in the right time!
Cheers,
Nat