Museum Paulina Bisdom van Vliet - Haastrecht

The name Bishopric van Vliet is a combination of the family name Bishopric with the seigniory Vliet that Theodorus Bishopric bought in 1755. The family capital comes from the coffee and cotton plantation De Herstel aan de rivier Demerary in the former Dutch colony Essequebo (now British Guyana). In 1874 Marcellus Bisdom van Vliet commissioned Theodorus Hooft and carpenter Cornelis Straver from The Hague to build a house in Haastrecht that was built on the foundation of an earlier family house. Even before the construction is finished, the client dies. Pauline Bisdom van Vliet has lived here for 42 years as a widow. In her will, she gives the house and this country house a museum purpose. The interior is almost authentic, making this house one of our most important Dutch monuments. The house is unique because of the authentic interiors from the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The reception rooms are still shrouded in a solemn silence. The sound of footsteps and voices is muted by thick, Deventer rugs and heavy, velvet curtains. You only hear the soothing tapping of one of the many bells.

The museum houses the tile tableau described by novelist Herman de Man in chapter 9 of his book 'The Barren Winter of Ninety'. This book is set in the harsh winter of the year 1890-1891.