Centraal Museum

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The Centraal Museum is a museum in Utrecht, The Netherlands. The museum was founded in 1838. Initially, the collection - exhibited on the top floor of the Utrecht townhall - was limited to art related to the city of Utrecht. In 1921 the collection merged with various private collections in the new 'centralised museum' (hence the name 'Centraal museum', centraal being the Dutch word for central) located in the former medieval monastery at the Nicolaaskerkhof. Currently, the collection comprises pre-1850 art, modern art, applied art, fashion and the city history of Utrecht.

[edit] Highlights

Amongst the highlights of the museum is the one-thousand year old 'Utrecht Ship'. The ship is part of the collection 'Stadsgeschiedenis'. The ship was found in 1930 near the Willem Arntszkade in Utrecht and was put in the cellar of the 16th-century built part of museumbuilding. Another highlight is the collection of paintings by the Utrecht Caravaggians, such as Gerard van Honthorst and Hendrick ter Brugghen. Both of them travelled to Rome in the early 17th century to study the works of the Italian master Caravaggio. Along with the mannerists Joachim Wtewael, Abraham Bloemaert, Paulus Moreelse and renaissance-painter Jan van Scorel, the carravagists give the collection in Utrecht an international allure.

Furthermore, the museum features a number of stylerooms from different centuries, such as a room by Sybold van Ravesteyn from 1927 and a room filled with Gispen furniture from the 1950s.