The National Museum of Antiquities, 200 years from now

The National Museum of Antiquities has been a household name in Leiden for 200 years. But old and dusty it is certainly not! The museum has moved with the times and undergone a fascinating development during these two centuries.

This anniversary year, you can watch a dazzling light show projected on the ancient temple of Taffeh at the museum entrance. There are also guided tours, fascinating exhibitions such as this one on the city of Nineveh and additional activities such as lectures and excursions. The museum’s collection consists of as many as 150,000 objects. That is an exceptionally large number. Especially when you consider that this collection started with an inheritance given to Leiden University in 1744: 150 Greek and Roman statues.

The history of the National Museum of Antiquities

Today you will find the National Museum of Antiquities in a large and monumental building on the Rapenburg, the most beautiful canal in Leiden. Ideal to combine with eating, drinking, shopping or boating in the vibrant student city of Leiden!

However, the museum used to look very different for decades and changed location a few times. A history of almost 200 years began in a simple building on Leidse Houtstraat in 1821.

After King William I founded the National Museum of Antiquities in 1818, the young inspired director Caspar Reuvens went looking for suitable housing and found it in 1801 in a patrician house on the Rapenburg, along with a number of properties that were “around the corner” on the Houtstraat. It was the time when people became more interested in the past. The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden brought together collections of ancient, ‘vanished’ cultures scattered throughout the Netherlands.

The young director and pioneer Caspar Reuvens

Reuvens was the first in the Netherlands to organize professional excavations and was a pioneer within the young science of archaeology in the Netherlands. He died prematurely, in 1835. Nevertheless, under his leadership, the collection had expanded at lightning speed. Special “art agents” were sent out to purchase objects abroad.

Because the collection of “antiquities” was growing so rapidly, they soon faced an acute lack of space. The National Museum of Antiquities therefore moved several times before moving into its current location.

Dazzling light shows and connection with the past

Today, the collection includes objects from Classical Antiquity, ancient Egypt, the ancient Near East, the Netherlands and other parts of Europe. The finds range from small jewelry to entire buildings! When the collection is expanded, it comes mainly through donations and purchases.

For example, the Netherlands collection expanded in 2017 with the purchase of the spectacular 3,500-year-old Sword of Ommerschans. The Egyptian temple in the main hall is a gift from the Egyptian government. It has become a symbol for the National Museum of Antiquities as well as a wedding, conference and party venue. The National Museum of Antiquities also conducts research at home and abroad and restores various objects such as mummy coffins and jewelry.

To visit the National Museum of Antiquities

Until March 25, 2018, you can still see the exhibition ‘Nineveh – capital of an empire’ which takes you to magnificent palaces from the heyday of the New Assyrian capital in northern Iraq, around 700 BC. From April 25, 2018, you can see the anniversary exhibition “Already 200 Years from Now” in which you will see over two hundred objects from the collection that played a notable role in museum history over the past two centuries. The light show can be seen every day at 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. (in English) and 3:30 p.m. for the next few years.