Museum Paulina Bisdom van Vliet - Haastrecht

The name Bisdom van Vliet is a conflation of the family name Bisdom with the manor of Vliet purchased by Theodorus Bisdom in 1755. The family capital comes from the coffee and cotton plantation De Herstelling on the Demerary River in the then Dutch colony of Essequebo (now British Guiana).

In 1874, Marcellus Bisdom van Vliet commissions Hague contractor Theodorus Hooft and carpenter Cornelis Straver to build a home in Haastrecht that will be built on the foundation of an earlier family home. Even before the construction is finished, the client dies. Pauline Bisdom van Vliet lives here as a widow for another 42 years. She gives the house and yard a museum purpose in her will.

The interior is virtually authentic, making this house one of our important monuments. The residence is unique for its authentic interiors from the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Even today, the reception rooms are shrouded in solemn silence. The sound of footsteps and voices is muffled by thick, Deventer rugs and heavy, velvet curtains. You hear only the soothing ticking of one of the many bells.

Inside the museum is the tile panel described by novelist Herman de Man in Chapter 9 of his book “The Barren Winter of Ninety. This book takes place in the harsh winter of the year 1890-1891.