Dordrecht - Van Gijn Museum

The handsome burgher's house at No. 29 was built in 1729 by Johan van Neurenberg, later burgomaster of Dordrecht; then in 1864 it was sold to the banker and art collector Simon van Gijn, who bequeathed it in 1922 to the Old Dordrecht Society, which opened it in 1925 as a museum. It was acquired by the town of Dordrecht in 1949.

This imposing mansion, still with decoration and furnishings in the original style, gives a good impression of a patrician house of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The ground floor corridor has rich stucco decoration. The Tapestry Room is hung with tapestries from a Brussels workshop founded in the 16th century, with scenes in Louis XIV style from the Italian pastoral "The Faithful Shepherd". Particularly fine is the Renaissance Room, which has an oak mantlepiece (ca. 1550) with figures of "wild men", originally made by the gifted wood-carver Jan Terwen (who also carved the choir-stalls in the Grote Kerk) for the Marksmen's Guild of Dordrecht. Other rooms of great interest are the kitchen, fully equipped, with a blue-tiled chimney; the dining room with its glassed-in verandah and its beautiful ceiling painting by Willy Martens (1856- 1927); and the study, with oak paneling and leather wallcovering (a rarity in the 19th century). There are displays of silver, china and glass, and, in the summerhouse in the garden, a large collection of toys.