Today’s
museum trip was to the newly re-opened Rijks Museum. Like many national
museums, it contains a lot of incredibly famous and beautiful works of art,
design, and decorative arts. It displays everything from Rembrandt’s ‘The Night
Watch’ to models of ships from when the Dutch ruled the high seas. It also has
rooms of pottery, an epic display of ivory pistols, and a gown decorated in thin
brass strips from the early 1800’s. My favourite room was on the second floor,
which had two incredibly detailed doll houses from the 1600’s (as my friend
Jenn Bowser has witnessed at Windsor Castle, I go all mushy for historical doll
houses)...
But what I’d
like to show you is some of the architectural changes that were made to the
building during its recent renovation. The outside entrance still looks similar
to when it originally opened in 1885....
And some
spaces inside are still frozen in time, such as the museum’s (still
functioning) library...
Other areas
have received a full restoration, such as the Great Hall on the second floor.
All of the paintings, stained glass, and stonework look as they would have when
the building was new...
Depicted in
the windows are patrons who had made donations to have the museum built in the
late 19th century...
But what I
really liked was how the new ground floor area merges new with the old
architecture seamlessly...
And
finally, the Rijks Museum is quintessentially Dutch with this feature...
On street
level, a bike path runs through the centre of the building.
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