The Army Museum (since 1913)
It is the Army Museums wish to keep alive the history of the Dutch soldier throughout the centuries by creating a bridge between society and armed forces. For this reason the Museum has been building its collection since 1913. Currently its collection contains more than 200,000 objects. This makes the Museum the visual memory of Dutch military history par excellence.
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| Castle Doorwerth |
The Museums foundations were laid by Frederic Adolphe Hoefer, a former officer. Hoefer brought together a number of Dutch military collections and added his own private collection. He bought the castle of Doorwerth, close to Oosterbeek, and in 1913 the new museum was openend there. It grew rapidly. During the war it was decided to move the museum to the former Plague Hospital in Leiden. In 1944, during the move, at a time when a great deal of the collection was still in Doorwerth, the castle was bombed, destroying a large part of the collection.
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| Leiden |
After its stay in the Leiden Plague Hospital, the collection was moved to the Armoury in Delft in 1984, where the Army Museum opened its doors to the public in 1986.
