The Mauritshuis museum houses the Royal Cabinet of Paintings which consists of 841 objects, primarily Dutch Golden Age paintings. The collections contains works by Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Steen, Paulus Potter, Frans Hals, Hans Holbein the Younger, and others. Probably the most famous painting in Mauritshuis is The Girl with a Pearl Earring (ca. 1665), one of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer's masterworks. It has been in the collection of the Mauritshuis gallery in The Hague since 1902. The another masterpiece in collection is the Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp painted by Rembrandt van Rijn (ca. 1632).
Originally, the 17th century building was the residence of count John Maurice of Nassau. In 1820, the Mauritshuis was bought by the Dutch state for the purpose of housing the Royal Cabinet of Paintings. In 1822, the Mauritshuis was opened to the public and housed the Royal Cabinet of Paintings and the Royal Cabinet of Rarities. In 1875, the entire museum became available for paintings. It is now the property of the government of the Netherlands and is listed in the top 100 Dutch heritage sites.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.