Permanent Exhibition

The museum shows a number of historical maps, from the 16th century until recent, clearly illustrating the development of the region, including the process of peat-digging.

Bottomfindings: The oldest remnants found are fundaments of three predecessors of the recent Amstel- church. The youngest of them dates back to the Dark Ages. Therewith also wooden children’s-coffins were found. The museum also shows a number of stone pipe-bowls, found in the surrounding polders. The oldest are from  1610, the youngest from 1900.

An interesting polder story is illustrated and illuminated: In the Dark Ages polders in the vicinity of Utrecht drained unlawfully water into the river Amstel. That caused inundation in the region of Amsterdam and Ouder- Amstel. In 1524 a solution was forced by constructing dams which stopped that draining and placed the problem at its origin.One of them, the Benningh-dam, named after the man who solved the problem  was present in the river Bullewijk in Ouderkerk from 1524 until 1649. The final solution was reached in 1525 at the court in Brussels.

Peat cutting: Peat is dredged since 1500. Before, it was dug off. The wet mud is  spread on the bank for drying. Therefore it is stamped on with boards under the clogs.  When the layer of mud, as high as a block of peat, is dry, the blocks are cut.

On government: Ouderkerk lost in the 13th century its leading role to Amsterdam. In the Dark Ages it was then more ore less independent. subordinate to Amsterdam from 1731 until 1798. Now it forms the municipality of Ouder-Amstel with the neighbouring localities Duivendrecht en Waver.

War Damage: Ouder-Amstel suffered a lot of military operations, plundering  and inundations during regional and international conflicts.
 
About religion: The oldest churches were built at the confluence of the rivers Amstel and Bullewijk. Four in succession. The third became Protestant. The Catholics erected their own church in 1867. Other churches of Priotestant denomination were built in  1920 and 1984. The chapel in Duivendrecht was abandoned in 1585. A new church was erected in 1879, which was replaced by the present one in 1879. The Protestant church dates from 1923.

Opposite the museum lies the Portuguese Jewish cemetery. The terrain and the tombs are of great cultural-historic value, which also is illustrated in the museum.