Princessehof

The Princessehof is the national ceramics museum of the Netherlands, housed in a group of buildings on the Grote Kerkstraat of which the main one was the residence of Maria Louise of Hesse-Kassel, the widowed princess who gave it its name. It holds around forty thousand objects. The Asian collection is the strength - Chinese and Japanese export porcelain, Chinese ceramics from the Tang onwards, and Southeast Asian material - assembled largely from the collection of Nanne Ottema, a Leeuwarden notary who founded the museum in 1917, and it is among the more significant such holdings in Europe. There is also Dutch Delftware, tiles, and a contemporary ceramics programme. Maurits Cornelis Escher was born in one of the buildings in 1898, when it housed the provincial engineering office where his father worked; a room marks it.

What you actually see

• A major Asian ceramics collection - Chinese and Japanese export ware and earlier pieces.
• Forty thousand objects - the national ceramics holding across cultures and periods.
• Delftware and tiles - the Dutch side of the collection.
• Escher's birth house - born here in 1898 when his father worked in the building.

When to go

All year. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Closed Mondays. Only a fraction of forty thousand objects is displayed and it rotates. Ceramics is a specialist subject and the labelling assumes some interest. Escher material is minimal here.

Nearby

The Fries Museum and the Oldehove tower are short walks away.