Escher in Het Paleis Museum (Escher Museum)

Escher in Het Paleis Museum (Escher Museum) Review

First known as the Lange Voorhout Palace, this lovely building was originally the residence of Caroline of Nassau, daughter of Prince Willem IV—in 1765 Mozart performed for her here. In 2001 the palace was transformed into a museum devoted to Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher (1892-1972), whose prints and engravings of unforgettable images—roofs becoming floors, water flowing upward, fish transforming into birds—became world famous in the 1960s and '70s. Replete with ever-repeating Baroque pillars, Palladian portals, and parallel horizons, Maurits Cornelis Escher's visual trickery presages the "virtual reality" worlds of today. Fittingly, the museum features an Escher Experience where you don a helmet and take a 360-degree digital trip through his unique world. Concave and convex, radical metamorphoses, and dazzling optical illusions are on view in the impressive selection of his prints (including the famed Day and Night and Ascending and Descending); distorted rooms and video cameras make children big and adults small; and there are rooms that are Escher prints blown up to the nth power. Don't forget to look up as you walk around—dangling glitteringly from the ceiling is a series of custom-designed chandeliers by Dutch sculptor Hans van Bentem that are inspired by Escher's work. These delightfully playful creations include umbrellas, sea horses, birds, and even a giant skull and crossbones. A family ticket for €23 makes this museum even more attractive for kids.