About the museum

The 18th-century city palace of Maria Louise van Hessen-Kassel, Princess of Orange Nassau, ancestor to King Willem-Alexander, is located at the heart of Leeuwarden’s historic city centre. This building houses the Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics. In 1898 Maurits Cornelis Escher, affectionately nicknamed ‘Mauk’, was born there.

The finest ceramics collected in The Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics. The focus is on Asian, European and modern ceramics. The museum has the largest and most varied collection of Chinese porcelain in the Netherlands and has a rich collection of the Dutch Art Nouveau and Art Deco ceramics from the period 1880-1930.  Our collections of Chinese Imperial porcelain, magnificent Art Nouveau and iconic Delft Blue objects, and works by artists such as Picasso, show that ceramics are of all times and of all ages. In addition to the permanent exhibition From East and West the museum has a lively programme of varying, much talked-about exhibitions.