The Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar tells the story of the city and the surrounding North Holland region through paintings, objects, and well-designed permanent displays. The strongest section deals with the Siege of Alkmaar in 1573, the first Spanish defeat in the Eighty Years' War: the Dutch deliberately flooded the surrounding polders by opening the dikes, the Spanish withdrew, and "Van Alkmaar de Victorie begint" — "Victory begins at Alkmaar" — became the national motto of resistance.
The art collection is mostly Golden Age painters from the North Holland school — Caesar van Everdingen, Jan van Scorel, the local Cornelisz family. Smaller temporary exhibitions occupy the upper floors. The museum sits on the Canadaplein, the plaza named for the Canadian troops who liberated the city in 1945, a short walk from the Grote Kerk.