More Local History...

After finishing the Pilgrim exhibit, we wandered through the rest of the museum, which had a major restoration and expansion from 2016 until 2019. While I had visited the Lakenhal (former cloth hall) before, I don’t recall ever being particularly impressed like I was during this visit. The building was beautiful with a much improved manner of displaying the art. 

In Ahead by Atelier Van Leishout in 2014, man and machine are literally intertwined. Working conditions were often sub-standard in the textile industry that made Leiden so prosperous in the 17th century. The artist is showing that industrialization and new technologies still don’t create a perfect situation for workers. 

View of the Korte Maar in Leiden was painted in 1778 depicting a canal around the corner from the museum, which was dug in 1611 during an expansion of the city. A network of canals allowed horse-drawn barges and smaller boats to have easy access to the cloth hall. 

This room covered in wall-to-wall paintings used to house the Brewer’s Assembly Room while this wing of the building housed the Leiden’s Brewer’s Guild from 1772 until 1801. 

A clandestine Catholic church built behind a house in 1694 was relocated into the Lakenhal in 1926.

The Self-Sacrifice of the Burgomaster (Mayor) was painted in 1817, but tells a tale of much earlier. In 1574, riots broke out in Leiden due to severe food shortages. Hungry citizens called on the mayor to surrender the city to the Spanish occupying forces. When he offered his own body as food, they shamefacedly backtracked. King William I gave this enormous (14 feet high by 19 feet wide) canvas depicting this historic deed to the city in 1818. 

The Siege of Leiden was a map made in 1588 out of wool and linen to depict the Sea Beggars’ journey from Rotterdam to Leiden. Of special interest to me was that it showed our village of Voorschoten...

...as well as Leiden.

Famous Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf set up quite an impressive shoot in 2011 for Liberty: Plague and Hunger During Leiden’s Siege. Based on new scientific insights, we now know that more people died then due to the plague rather than hunger. While many of the attributes are historical, he also included an iPod and reading glasses.

This large stained glass window was made in 1928 in honor of the 100th anniversary of Algemeen Handelsblad, a liberal newspaper published in Amsterdam from 1828 to 1970. 

View of the Lakenhal was painted on commission in 1642 by Susanna van Steenwijck, who specialized in small architectural exteriors. The Lakenhal was once the administrative center of the cloth trade. Cloth had to pass quality inspection here before being allowed to be sold. The building opened in 1640 during the height of the textile trade. Of the 60,000 people living in Leiden at the time, at least half were employed in the industry.  

By 1820, the textile industry had shrunk considerably, so the cloth hall was no longer needed. It was repurposed as a Hall of Manufacturing and cholera hospital. In 1874 it was repurposed again as Museum de Lakenhal.