Catharijneconvent Museum (Catherine Convent Museum), Utrecht

Housed in a former convent, Saint Catherine Convent Museum in Utrecht is the leading institution for the history and art of Christianity in the Netherlands. Its collection spans over a millennium, covering religious and devotional objects from the Middle Ages to the present day. More than just an exhibition space, the museum offers a deep dive into Christian heritage through paintings, sculptures, manuscripts, metalwork, textiles, and even everyday items such as prayer beads and Nativity scenes.

Among the museum’s treasures are Maarten de Vos’s dramatic Moses Showing the Ten Commandments (1575) and Geertgen tot Sint Jans’s evocative Man of Sorrows (1485-94). The museum also holds some of the oldest surviving manuscripts in the region, dating back to the tenth and eleventh centuries. A striking bust of a woman by the mysterious “Master of the Utrecht Stone Woman’s Head” (c. 1520) remains an enigmatic highlight of its sculpture collection.

The museum’s textile collection includes richly embroidered vestments from the Grote Kerk of Hoorn, crafted after designs by Jacob Cornelisz. Van Oostsanen in the early sixteenth century. One of its most debated relics, the Lebuinus Chalice, was once revered as a possession of Saint Lebuinus. Later research, however, revealed that the chalice dates from the ninth century-after the saint’s death-and belongs stylistically to the era of Charlemagne, reflecting the emperor’s ambition to align his realm with the legacy of Ancient Rome.

Beyond its tangible artifacts, Saint Catherine Convent Museum also curates a collection of oral histories and personal recollections, offering perspectives on faith and religious practice that transcend material culture. Whether through medieval craftsmanship or contemporary storytelling, the museum presents an evolving narrative of Christianity’s role in Dutch history and identity.