Huis Van Gijn is a wealthy merchant's house on the Nieuwe Haven canal, presented exactly as its last owner left it a century ago. The rooms run the full social spectrum: a grand reception room with painted ceilings, a music room with a working pipe organ, a wood-panelled library, and downstairs a complete 19th-century kitchen with copper pans and a coal stove. The attic holds Van Gijn's collection of antique toys, dollhouses and tin soldiers — a small, slightly eerie museum within a museum.
The pleasure of the place is the sense of intrusion. You walk through real rooms with real things in them rather than through a curated display, and it gives a clearer picture of how a prosperous Dordrecht family actually lived than any number of paintings could. Combine with the Dordrechts Museum and the Hof van Nederland on a single ticket.