The Zaans Museum opened in 1998 to guard and preserve Zaans heritage….

In the middle of the typical Zaans “stroke landscape” next to the parking lot of the Zaanse Schans you will find the Zaans Museum. In 1997 the foundation stone for the modern building was laid by Albert Heijn and in September 1998 the Zaans Museum was opened. Since this was to house the various historical collections together from various locations with perfect climate control, a modern building with a warehouse-like layout was chosen. The sloping shape of the building is a reference to the river Zaan. The basis of the collections is formed by the collection of Jacob Honig Jansz. Jr. on the one hand (he was the first to start collecting typical Zaan objects in the ^19th century) and on the other hand by the company collection of the Verkade company.

The Museum houses numerous fascinating stories in its collection about living and working in the Zaan region. In it, the rich history of this world-famous area of North Holland is told. From the green Zaan wood building, as an icon of the Zaan region, to the Dutch mills. The invention of the first sawmill in 1592 was at the cradle of prosperity in the 17th^century : many industries were created as a result. The successful entrepreneurial spirit is still clearly visible in the heritage along the Zaan. The Museum presents the atmosphere of a rich cultural life and the impressive history of shipbuilding, whaling and the food industry: utensils, clothing, paintings and factory materials.

French painter Claude Monet (1840-1926) was so impressed by the Zaan landscape that he captured it on a trip in 1871 in no fewer than 25 paintings and nine sketches. The Zaans Museum acquired Monet’s painting ‘The Voorzaan and the Westerhem’ in 2016, making it part of the permanent collection. Other masterpieces in the collection are ‘Bull’s Cruelty’ from 1647 and ‘The Man Under the Bear’ from 1668. The first painting contains a legendary and bizarre story of a woman being attacked by a bull, the second painting shows a scene of whaling in the Arctic, where the commander of whaler ‘De Hoop op d’Swarte Walvis’ was attacked by a polar bear – he survived and was nicknamed ‘the man under the bear.