How did the Zeeuws Museum come about?
In 1769, a group of well-to-do notables from Zeeland unite in the Royal Zeeland Society of Sciences with the aim of undertaking activities together. At the end of the 18th century, the same society founded the first museum in Zeeland: the Museum Medioburgense , located on the Latin Schoolstraat in Middelburg. A century later, in 1889, the museum moved to Wagenaarstraat in Middelburg in an old patrician house. A few years earlier, in 1886, another museum was opened in the Schutterhofstraat in Middelburg, the Kunstmuseum . The collection of this museum mainly consists of paintings and drawings. The collection is housed in a new building with a museum function to do justice to the art.
THE ZEELAND MUSEUM FOUNDATION
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the Kunstmuseum and the Museum Medioburgense in Middelburg flourished side by side for decades. In the course of the 20th century, both museums fell into disrepair and, moreover, part of the collection was lost due to bombardments in 1940. After the war, the need arose again for a contemporary museum in the province. In 1961 the Zeeuwse Museumstichting moved into the patrician house on Wagenaarstraat and received the collection of the Zeeuwsch Genootschap on loan. The collection of art objects of the Kunstmuseum on Schuttershofstraat of the Vereniging Kunstmuseum will be transferred to the Zeeuwse Museumstichting.
ZEELAND MUSEUM IN THE ABBEY
It is clear from the start that the accommodation in the patrician house on Wagenaarstraat does not meet the requirements of a modern museum operation. For example, the roof above the depot is not insulated. The entire building is also heated by just two stoves, so that it also freezes indoors during harsh winters. In 1962 the plan for housing in the former abbey in the center of Middelburg was created. An abbey dating back to the 11th century and home to the provincial government. Nevertheless, it will take another ten years, until 1972, before the Zeeuws Museum finally occupies part of the abbey complex .
