Amsterdam is the capital and the largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Amsterdam’s name derives from Amstelredamme, linking the city’s origins around a dam in the river Amstel.
Starting as a small fishing village in the late 12th century, Amsterdam became one of the most important ports in the world during the Dutch Golden Age (17th century), as a result of its innovative developments in trade.
During that time, the city was the leading center for finance. The 17th-century canals of Amsterdam are on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
A Virtual Tour Museums in and around Amsterdam
- Rijksmuseum
- Van Gogh Museum
- Frans Hals Museum
A Tour of Museums in Amsterdam
Rijksmuseum
Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum is the Dutch National Museum dedicated to arts and history.
The Rijksmuseum was founded in The Hague in 1800 and moved to Amsterdam in 1808. It was first located in the Royal Palace and later in the Trippenhuis.
The museum has a collection of 1 million objects from the years 1200–2000, among which are masterpieces by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Johannes Vermeer.
- Name: Rijksmuseum
- Established: 1800
- Collection: 1+ million objects
- Type: Arts and History Museum
- Location: Museumstraat, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Van Gogh Museum
The Van Gogh Museum is dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The museum’s collection is the most extensive collection of Van Gogh’s paintings and drawings in the world.
- Museum: Van Gogh Museum
- Established: 1973
- Type: Arts Museum
- Location: Paulus Potterstraat, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Amsterdam Museum
The Amsterdam Museum (formerly the Amsterdams Historisch Museum) is a museum focused on the history of Amsterdam.
The museum opened in 1926 in the Waag, one of Amsterdam’s 15th-century city gates. Since 1975 it has been housed in a former convent that was previously used as Amsterdam’s municipal orphanage.
- Museum: Amsterdam Museum
- Established: 1926
- Collection: 70,000 objects
- Type: Arts and History Museum
- Location: Kalverstraat 92, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Anne Frank House
The Anne Frank House is a museum dedicated to Jewish wartime diarist Anne Frank. During World War II, Anne Frank hid from Nazi persecution with her family and four other people in hidden rooms at the rear of the 17th-century canal house.
Anne Frank did not survive the war, but her wartime diary was published in 1947. The museum preserves the hiding place and has exhibitions on her life and times of Anne Frank. The museum is one of the most visited museums in Amsterdam.
- Museum: Anne Frank House
- Established: 1960
- Type:
- Location: Prinsengracht 263-265, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design. It is located at the Museum Square in south Amsterdam close to the Van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Concertgebouw.
The collection comprises art and design from the early 20th century up to the 21st century.
It features artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Wassily Kandinsky, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock, Karel Appel, Andy Warhol, and Willem de Kooning.
- Museum: Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
- Established: 1874
- Collection: 90,000 items
- Type: Modern art, contemporary art
- Location: Museumplein 10, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum (National Maritime Museum)
The National Maritime Museum dedicated to maritime history. The collection contains paintings, scale models, weapons, and world maps.
The paintings depict Dutch naval officers and historical sea battles. The map collection includes works by 17th-century cartographers and rare surviving copies of voyages around the world.
Moored outside the museum is a replica of the Amsterdam, an 18th-century ship which sailed between the Netherlands and the East Indies.
- Name: Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum – National Maritime Museum
- Established: 1916
- Type: Maritime museum
- Location: Museumplein 10, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Rembrandt House Museum
The Rembrandt House Museum is a historic house and art museum. Rembrandt purchased the home in 1639 and lived there until he went bankrupt in 1656 when all his belongings went on auction.
The 17th-century interior has been reconstructed. The collection contains Rembrandt’s etchings and paintings of his contemporaries.
- Name: Rembrandt House Museum
- Established: 1911
- Type: Biographical museum, Historic house museum
- Location: Jodenbreestraat 4, Amsterdam, Netherlands
NEMO Science Museum
The NEMO Science Museum is a science center that contains five floors of hands-on science exhibitions. It is the largest science center in the Netherlands.
Name: NEMO Science Museum
Established: 1923
Type: Science Centre and museum
Location: Oosterdok 2, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Joods Historisch Museum (Jewish Historical Museum)
The Joods Historisch Museum (Jewish Historical Museum) is a museum dedicated to Jewish history, culture, and religion. It is the only museum in the Netherlands dedicated to Jewish history.
The museum’s collection includes ceremonial objects and historical objects focused on Jewish traditions and customs. Inspired by the former interior of the synagogue, the ceremonial objects are shown in locations where they used to be placed in the synagogue.
- Museum: Joods Historisch Museum (Jewish Historical Museum)
- Established: 1932
- Collection: 11,000 objects
- Type: Culture and History Museum
- Location: Nieuwe Amstelstraat 1, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Verzetsmuseum (The Resistance Museum)
The Resistance Museum is a museum that tells the story of the Dutch people in World War II. From 1940 to 1945, the Netherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany.
The museum recreates the atmosphere of the streets of Amsterdam during the German occupation of World War II. Photographs, posters, objects, films, and sounds from that time, help to recreate the scene.
The exhibition focuses on everyday life, heroism, and the resistance of the population against the Nazis.
- Museum: Verzetsmuseum (The Resistance Museum)
- Established: 1999
- Type: Culture and History Museum
- Location: Plantage Kerklaan 61, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tropenmuseum ( Museum of the Tropics)
The Tropenmuseum is an ethnographic museum and one of the largest museums in Amsterdam. The museum is part of the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Museum of World Cultures), a combination of three ethnographic museums in the Netherlands.
The museum houses thousands of objects, photographs, drawings, paintings, and documents. The collections cover Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia & North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, China, Japan, Korea, and Europe.
- Museum: Tropenmuseum ( Museum of the Tropics)
- Established: 1864
- Collection: 130,000 objects
- Type: Culture and History Museum
- Location: Oudezijds Voorburgwal 40, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder (Our Lord in the Attic)
Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder (Our Lord in the Attic) is a 17th-century canal house and church museum.
The Catholic Church was built on the top three floors of the house during the 1660s.
It is an important example of a “clandestine church” in which Catholics and other religious dissenters from the seventeenth century Dutch Reformed Church, unable to worship in public, held services.
- Museum: Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder (Our Lord in the Attic)
- Established: 1888
- Type: Ethnographic museum
- Location: Linnaeusstraat 2, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Top Museums in Amsterdam
- Rijksmuseum
- Van Gogh Museum
- Amsterdam Museum
- Anne Frank House
- Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
- Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum (National Maritime Museum)
- Rembrandt House Museum
- NEMO Science Museum
- Joods Historisch Museum (Jewish Historical Museum)
- Verzetsmuseum (The Resistance Museum)
- Tropenmuseum
- Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder (Our Lord in the Attic)
Amsterdam Museums
- City: Amsterdam
- Country: Netherlands
- Population: 2.4 million Metro
- Origins of Name: Amstelredamme – a dam in the river Amstel.
Map of Museums in Amsterdam
The Top Museums in Amsterdam!
Rijksmuseum (State Museum) Amsterdam
Virtual Tour of European Museums
- France Museums
- Italy Museums
- Greece Museums
- Germany Museums
- Austria Museums
- Ireland Museums
- Netherlands Museums
- Spain Museums
- Belgium Museums
- Serbia Museums
- Poland Museums
- Switzerland Museums
- Czech Museums
- Norway Museums
- Sweden Museums
- Hungary Museums
- Portugal Museums
Amsterdam, Netherlands: The Van Gogh Museum
Rijksmuseum Walking tour
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“Take care of the pennies, and the pounds will take care of themselves.”
– Dutch Proverb
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Photo Credit: By Lies Thru a Lens (Amsterdam – the Canal Ring) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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