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HIDDEN SECRETS: 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 reign above all.Online Editor: Natasha Hendriks

The Librije

After 2020, we are in need of reflection, contemplation, rest, history, wisdom. You'll find all that at De Librije. Not the well-known restaurant in Zwolle, but the eponymous public reading room in Zutphen, founded in 1564 by two church masters of the Gothic Walburgiskerk. The reading room has a diverse selection of books on theology, literature and history. Because copies regularly disappeared, the books were chained to the wooden structures - you now had to read them in the pews. Printed before 1500, the collection has seven manuscripts. The Librije is a unique cultural-historical monument of which we can be proud. 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 is up to the Utrecht-based museum Catharijneconvent, initiator of Het Grootste Museum van Nederland. Under this heading, eleven churches and two synagogues around the country are exposing 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. That this Dutch church building has an oriental look is because architect Jan Stuyt and artist Piet Gerrits - who built this Roman Catholic total work of art in the early 20th century - had been inspired by a pilgrimage to the Middle East.

La Samaritaine

La Samaritaine has its origins in 1869, then a store opened by Ernest Cognacq. By 1900, business was doing so well that it was decided to expand. In 2001, the department store was acquired by LVMH and suddenly closed its doors four years later. After a 500 million euro renovation, 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 includes a 20,000-square-meter shopping mecca and a highly luxurious five-star hotel: the first Parisian branch of the luxury hotel chain Cheval Blanc. Shopping and sleeping in one building!

LXRY List 2021

LXRY LIST 2021