A new home has been found for Leiden’s American Pilgrim Museum with a closer connection to the years they spent in the city prior to their journey across the Atlantic in 1620.

The museum, the city’s smallest, had been threatened with closure, but will soon be relocated to the former house of the sacristy at the Pieterskerk, a church that dates back to the 14th century.

“We’re getting to settle in an area that’s more appropriate,” Sarah Moine, the museum’s curator and director, told Dutch News. “Many of the Pilgrims lived near the church and pastor John Robinson was just across the street.”

Robinson was buried in the Pieterskerk. Visitors can currently learn more about him and the Pilgrims via informational displays located both inside and outside. The church also hosts an annual Thanksgiving Day Service every November.

The museum’s new home, which sits alongside the Pieterskerk, had been used as a short stay rental called the Villa Rameau in recent years. The house is considerably larger than its current location and will offer space for additional exhibitions.

“One thing we’re excited about is focusing on the Native American part of the story,” Moine said. “We’ll keep the spirit of the museum as it was before, showing the daily life of the Pilgrims in Leiden, but we’ll also focus on other parts and that’s a big one.”

“It’s been a really smooth transition,” Tommie Flynn, the widow of the museum’s founder and director Jeremy Bangs, said. “When we realised we needed to move, this opportunity opened up.”

The American Pilgrim Museum is scheduled to reopen in May. Updates will follow on its website.