museum aan het vrijthof

The exhibition space is disappointing. I felt that it could have been better interpreted and overall found the museum lacklustre.

We were greeted by three welcoming but inefficient employees. After seeing mere copies of paintings when entering the exhibition, we were lead into two reconstituted chambers with no explanation and a laughable voice recording. After that, the exposition plummeted: neon lights, dust everywhere, no finishing works (badly glued details, cables running everywhere), degraded or copied objects, and the list could go on. This might have been forgiven if there had been at least coherence and cohesion wothin the exhibition, but explanations and pieces of history of the oldest city of the Netherlands were nowhere to be found... The video "Beauty" was taken from the internet. All in all, this 'history museum' does not fulfill its task at all, the story of the building with Charles Quint is not even mentioned, and the restaurant seems to be the sole attraction. Those eight euros would have been better spent on the typical 'vlaai'.

The museum as the name suggests is on the central square of town the Vrijthof. Recently renovated (2012) it is a blend of a 16th century building of the Spanish Government, a former mansion and modern architecture which works out nicely. A visit will take you through various style rooms and temporary exhibitions. There are very interesting items on display that will tell you of the history of Maastricht and the area around. There is a nice Grand Cafe for coffee, tea and sandwiches.

The 500 year old building is pushed away by the modern building. I like the grand cafe but acoustics and presence is not welcoming. The Vrijthof square guarantees high numbers of people entering, little want to stay. Intertwining is complicated. In the museum itself it is difficult to 'learn' from the collection. It's like a nice chocolte: you long for it. And it can give you seconds of pleasure. A bitt too little though

You will be handed an English guide on copy papers but it is hard to follow. A small museum. Not worth the money. All the guides i saw inside were Dutch speaking.

The building is linked back to the Hapsburg rule of the Netherlands and has direct connections with Charles V. To mind mind the best part is the story of Maastricht told by "talking" portraits of people connected with it throughout its history.

We went here to see the changes of Maastricht through the ages. For 8 euros it was not really worth the money. The audio things that hang around your neck are useless - what happens when both dutch and english are needed to be heard at the same time - chaos would ensue - would be much better to use audio headsets for each personAlso not enough of the plaques were written in English which did not help to the cause.The one redeeming feature was the cafe that is in a covered courtyard in between the entrance and the old building that houses the museum.The ladies at the reception/ticketing were friendly

After a long day seeing al the venues in Maastricht we popped in for a short visit at the end of the day. We had a good time. The staff were very friendly and helpful. The museum is small, but we've never seen anything like it. One is lead from room to room, guided by an audiovisual presentation made by people with a sense of humor and lots of pride for Maastricht. The room "hanging" in the middle of the museum was very original.

A museum about Maastricht and its history in a sensitively converted old property on one of the city's main squares. Mainly of local interest, but well done and with a small cafe serving mainly snacks.

Definitely not enough contents for a museum. 8 euros for copies, animations and recordings that you can see in 10 minutes is a rip-off, a bit of a joke.

I agree with other reviewers that this is a beautiful museum with an elegantly designed interior and exhibits. The problem is that the reliance on RFID technology and the attempt to bring the past to life through voices and projections fails to put across the story. For us the RFID card technology worked okay as we were about the only people in the building, but the voices were difficult to hear so the point was lost on us. The physical exhibits were fine but not enough to explain the history of Maastricht, and this was further complicated by the reverse narrative. I wanted to know how the town had developed and how the industries had built the town, but I left with little more understanding than I started. Overall I thought the concept of the museum was very confused. I had thought it was about local industries but then found myself in an 18th century dining room hearing about domestic arrangements. The final room was like a scene out of Harry Potter with talking portraits. This must be confusing when visitors with different language RFIDs are coming through. In our case we tried to listen to it all, although I struggled to hear and didn't really get the point, but it seemed to just stop before the end anyway.For an entrance fee of 8 euros I expected a lot more than this. It would have been better to use more display panels in Dutch and English, with maps of the town as it developed, and also to start at the beginning and work forwards so there is a sense of narrative.

Good for the history of the town definitively. Great animations. This is interactive and I learned some new things. So go there as this gives a good bacground about the city history.

This museum is quite beautiful and there was clearly a lot of money invested into building it, however it doesn't contain the content to justify the entrance fee. In addition the 'smart' card that they make you wear to interact with the exhibits is unreliable. Not good value for money.

Quite an interesting museum housed in a beautiful building in the centre of Maastricht. The staff was helpful and the exhibits gave us a better understanding of the history and culture of the city. We didn't eat in the cafe but the cakes looked amazing!

We went to the museum and thankfully we used our Museumkaart as I genuinely believe if we'd paid I'd have asked for my money back. The RFID tech just doesn't work. If we were in a room with other people we'd either cut off their feed or vice versa. When people walked into the same room as you, you couldn't hear the feed anymore. The feeds I believe were not very well done and attempted to fit as much historical data in them when trying to also sound like a natural conversation. Sometimes the feeds started before you even entered the room as the signal from your transmitter was picked up too early. In some rooms two seperate feeds would kick in so you had two different talks going at once. The last room seemed to me the most interesting and entertaining. However, we soon realised why the family in the room before us left with an annoyed look on their faces as our transmitter had knocked off their feed. This then happened to us too. Incredibly frustrating!