Every year on the second weekend of September, thousands of beautiful monuments throughout the Netherlands are freely accessible to everyone. Open Monuments Day 2023 will take place on Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 September. In De Plantage, the Groote Museum, Museum ’t Kromhout, and the building of the GGD/De Joosdche Invalide, among others, have special activities.

Theme Living Heritage
This year it is twenty years since the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the Intangible Cultural Heritage was concluded, hence the theme of 2023; “Living Heritage”. The focus is on the cultural customs, traditions and craft skills that people have received from others in the past, which they have made their own and want to pass on. Unlike the stones of a monument, this intangible heritage is in constant motion and changes with the times and from practitioner to practitioner.

Crafts, traditions and customs are often unconsciously already present in the monuments. Consider, for example, the craft of the miller. The miller cannot practice his profession without a properly functioning mill. But the other way around, the mill is also a soulless building without the miller and his work.

This year, the monuments are bursting at the seams with vibrancy. Surprising links between monuments and living heritage are explored. From ironsmiths to the Anansi storytelling tradition, from Gregorian singing to fanfares, from poffertjes to Indonesian rice table; (living) heritage connects us all.

Look here for the monuments you can visit on the weekend of 9 and 10 September.

Open Monuments Day, 9 and 10 September