Breda's main museum tells the city's remarkable history through paintings and artefacts, but to make sense of it you'll need to request the explanatory booklet and read as much as you peruse. The order can be confusing, and attempting such a task in just two of the museum's six galleries can feel overly ambitious. The rest of the space features regularly changing exhibitions, typically imaginative and focused on the manipulation of visual images.
Putting two such different concepts together can feel rather discordant, but as yet you may not buy tickets for just one section. In the history collection, highlights include a plumed carnival-prince's hat, a 1538 altar-screen panel depicting the Niervaart 'miracle wafer', and items of reassembled glasswear that were once owned (and broken) by city governor Charles de Héranière. He had been the hero-commander of the daring 1590 'Turfschip' raid, recapturing the city from Spanish occupation using a turf-covered barge full of hidden Dutch infantrymen – a waterborne Trojan Horse–style ruse.
