The Drents Museum is an art and history museum in Assen, Netherlands. The museum was opened in 1854. It has a collection of prehistorical artifacts, applied art, and visual art.
The museum is located in the earlier Marienkamp Abbey. It was founded in 1215 and moved to the present Assen in 1258.
The community ceased to exist during the Protestant Reformation, around 1596; its formal dissolution took place in 1602. In 1601 the church tower collapsed, and badly damaged the church, which was rebuilt in 1662: of the mediaeval structure only the south wall remained.
In 1848 the church was sold to the municipality, which used it as a community centre. Since 1982 it has been used as part of the Drents Museum.
References:The Jan Hus Memorial stands at one end of Old Town Square. The huge monument depicts victorious Hussite warriors and Protestants who were forced into exile 200 years after Hus, and a young mother who symbolises national rebirth. The monument was so large that the sculptor designed and built his own villa and studio where the work could be carried out. It was unveiled in 1915 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Jan Hus' martyrdom. The memorial was designed by Ladislav Šaloun and paid for solely by public donations.
Born in 1369, Hus became an influential religious thinker, philosopher, and reformer in Prague. He was a key predecessor to the Protestant movement of the sixteenth century. In his works he criticized religious moral decay of the Catholic Church. Accordingly, the Czech patriot Hus believed that mass should be given in the vernacular, or local language, rather than in Latin. He was inspired by the teachings of John Wycliffe.