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HIDDEN SECRETS: HISTORY
Are you drawn to rich stories steeped in history? These are a few hidden secrets with history.
Are you a lover of rich stories steeped in history? These are a few hidden secrets with history in LXRY List 2021, where peace and privacy prevail.Online editor: Natasha Hendriks
De Liberije
After 2020 we are ready for reflection, contemplation, peace, history, wisdom. You can find all that in De Librije. Not the famous restaurant in Zwolle, but the public reading room of the same name in Zutphen, which was founded in 1564 by two church wardens of the Gothic Walburgis Church. The reading room has a diverse range of books on the themes of theology, literature and history. Because copies regularly disappeared, the books were chained to the wooden constructions - you now had to read them in the pews. The collection was printed before 1500 and contains seven manuscripts. De Librije is a unique cultural-historical monument that we can be proud of. There is only one other original 'chain library' in Europe, the Biblioteca Malatestiana in Cesena.
The Largest Museum in the Netherlands
Is church attendance declining? Not if it were up to the Utrecht museum Catharijneconvent, initiator of The Largest Museum in the Netherlands. Under this heading, eleven churches and two synagogues in the country expose their treasures. The showpiece is the Cenacle Church in Heilig Landstichting, which rises like a mirage in the green hills between Nijmegen and Groesbeek. A white plastered, oriental-looking building with a dome and two towers. The fact that this Dutch church building has an oriental appearance is because architect Jan Stuyt and artist Piet Gerrits - who built this Roman Catholic total work of art in the early twentieth century - were inspired by a pilgrimage to the Middle East.
La samaritaine
La Samaritaine has its origins in 1869, when it was still a shop opened by Ernest Cognacq. By 1900, business was doing so well that it was decided to expand. In 2001, the department store was taken over by LVMH and four years later it suddenly closed its doors. After a renovation costing 500 million euros, the luxury department store will open this year. This Parisian icon is a true eye-catcher, combining classic Art Deco and Art Nouveau with a futuristic glass facade. The new La Samaritaine contains a shopping mecca of 20.000 square meters and an extremely luxurious five-star hotel: the first Paris branch of the luxury hotel chain Cheval Blanc. Shopping and sleeping in one building!
