Over 5,000 monuments open their doors this weekend for Open Monument Day

This weekend, over 5,000 monuments in the Netherlands will open their doors for Open Monument Day. This year's theme is "Living Heritage." "This represents the cultural customs, traditions, and craftsmanship that people have inherited from home and in turn pass on to the next generation," the organization says.

"Besides opening their doors, many locations also organize on-site activities like exhibitions, musical performances, and guided tours. Each year around 80 to 85 percent of Dutch municipalities participate in the Open Monument Day, organized by local committees," it says on the website of the cultural event.

Visitors can tour castles, farms, mills, and gardens, among others, that are not normally open to the public. In Utrecht, for example, culinary heritage lovers can visit Slot Zuylestein, where a mini-symposium on the ingredients, preparation, and creation of 17th-century dishes will be held. In Amsterdam, the music venue Paradiso will open rooms where the public is not normally allowed, and the staff will talk about the building's history. And in Groningen, storytellers bring Groningen folktales to life in dialects at various locations.

Last year, more than 1.2 million people visited one of the thousands of national monuments, making the Open Monument Day one of the Netherlands’ premier cultural events.