Visit William!

The Stedelijk Museum Breda and Museum Prinsenhof Delft present: William! This temporary exhibition on the price of freedom will run from 10 October 2025 until 6 April 2026. 

In early 2025, the Museum Prinsenhof Delft closes its doors for a major renovation. During this renovation, some of the Delft collection will be on display at the Stedelijk Museum Breda for six months, as part of ‘Museum Prinsenhof Delft GOING OUT THERE’. For the very first time, the stories of William the Silent in Delft and in Breda will be presented coherently, and the collections will be gathered in a single building. 

The story told by the permanent exhibition The Nassaus of Breda at the Stedelijk Museum Breda ends with William the Silent’s departure in 1567. William had to flee for his life because he was no longer willing to obey the king of Spain. The Museum Prinsenhof tells the story of the prince and his residence in Delft. From Delft, he carried on the fight for freedom of conscience that would become known as the Eighty Years’ War. On 10 July 1584, William was murdered in Prinsenhof.  

Both Nassau cities influenced his life and the history of the Netherlands. Breda represented the beginning of what could have been a wonderful career for the Prince of Orange. His palace was there, and his roots, and his forefathers were buried there. His life ended in Delft, his tomb is there and it is also where his fame as the father of the nation began. 

The temporary closing of the Museum Prinsenhof Delft offers an exceptional opportunity to exhibit the Delft collection in Breda, and tell the full story of William the Silent. Visitors will be presented with a unique diptych, consisting of a permanent and a temporary exhibition.  

Joining these two collections offers an outstanding opportunity to find out all about William the Silent and the Nassaus: his beginning and his end, and all that happened in between.