The Frans Hals Museum has enjoyed growing fame and interest ever since it opened its doors in Groot Heiligland in 1913. The museum’s collection of Haarlem Old Masters of the Golden Age, including the world’s largest collection of paintings by Frans Hals, is unique. In the early seventeenth century painting underwent a radical change, and the foundations for this were laid in Haarlem. This change ultimately determined the style and the grandeur of the Golden Age, so Haarlem can rightly be regarded as its birthplace. The Frans Hals Museum’s collection, which encompasses the entire spectrum of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century painting, reflects this revolutionary change.