Amsterdam is among the top ten most visited cities in Europe. Certainly, this is the largest city in the Netherlands and attracts more than 5 million tourists every year. This statistic is completely logical given that Amsterdam is full of interesting buildings and locations that are worth visiting. Simply, it’s impossible not to find something interesting that you like. Some of the institutions that tourists most like to visit are museums such as the Van Gogh Museum or Anne Frank House.
However, in addition to these, there are still many sites that offer their visitors very interesting content. To help you choose, we decided to create the following list that contains the 8 best museums in Amsterdam. So, if you’re ready, let’s start.
1. Stedelijk Museum
For the beginning, we decided to introduce you to the Stedelijk Museum, which contains a large number of works of modern and contemporary art and design. It is important to note that this is the largest museum of this type in the Netherlands and that, if you visit it, you can see artworks of some of the most famous artists such as Warhol, De Kooning, Malevich, Mondrian, Chagall, Picasso, Appel, Koons, Rietveld, Dumas and Rietveld.
Surely, the Stedelijk Museum is a place you should visit while you are in Amsterdam, and where you will be able to experience contemporary visual art as well as modern art.
2. Jewish Historical Museum
The Jewish Historical Museum is one of the museums in the Netherlands with the largest collection of exhibits. Their collection consists of 13,000 different items and works of art that are connected with religion, history and, of course, the culture of Jews in the Netherlands and the colonies of this coastal state.
All visitors are provided with a high-quality video and audio content as well as 3D presentations, so there is no doubt that the visit of the Jewish Historical Museum is very interesting. In addition to these things, each year, a number of exhibitions dedicated to contemporary Judaism are organized. It is important to note that visitors can always see two exhibitions that contain only 5 percent of the total number of exhibits owned by this museum.
Another very interesting part of the Jewish Historical Museum is the Children’s Museum. It represents the home of a Jewish family called Hollanders. Children in this section can learn about various interesting things such as the kitchen and music of a Jewish family.
3. Nemo Science Museum
As you can conclude on the basis of the name of this museum, it is a science center where you can educate yourself well and learn some interesting things about science. The building that represents the home of this institution has a characteristic green facade color, so you will easily recognize it. The Nemo Science Museum can also be classified into interactive museums as all visitors can do some scientific experiments. The space is very large and the building contains five floors.
There is no doubt that every visitor will be very interested to learn things like how bridges work or how lightning is generated. The great thing is that you can freely bring children with you so they can have an unforgettable experience, because, as we said, it is about an interactive museum.
4. Rijksmuseum
When visiting Amsterdam, the Rijksmuseum is a place you simply need to visit. This museum is among the most visited and largest museums in this city. The Rijksmuseum has a large collection of very valuable exhibits and artworks by well-known Dutch and international artists.
There are amazing pictures by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Vermeer as well as other great artists from the Netherlands. All in all, in this museum you will be able to see true masterpieces of art, and certainly, one of the many paintings that point out is Night Watch by Rembrandt.
5. Van Gogh Museum
We mentioned great Dutch artists above. Van Gogh, who created some of the greatest works of art in history, certainly belongs to this group. Van Gogh Museum is an institution devoted to this great artist and his creations. The museum owns a large collection of valuable exhibits featuring 500 drawings, 200 paintings, over 700 letters and a large number of Japanese prints owned by this artist.
If you visit the museum, you will be able to find out a great number of interesting information related to the life and work of Van Gogh, but also to see how his career developed. You will also be able to see some of his most famous works of art such as Almond Blossom, Sunflowers as well as The Potato Eaters.
6. Anne Frankhuis
You probably read Anne Frank’s Diary at some point and you know the story of a girl who was of Jewish origin and who was hiding during the Second World War in a building in Prinsengracht during the occupation of the Nazi forces. She managed to stay uncovered together with her family for a long time, however, they later found her, and she had to go to a concentration camp because she was a Jew. Her diary is a great testimony of a difficult period for all people during World War II, especially Jews, over which many crimes have been committed. Therefore, if you want to know more about this period, visiting Anne Frank House is the right solution for you.
This building, which was their shelter in the most difficult moments, was hardly damaged when the war ended. From the group that was in that place, the only survivor was Anne’s father, whose name was Otto. When the war ended, he had enough money to buy this house, but not to restore it in the right way. However, with the help of the citizens, he managed to establish an Anne Frank Foundation, which managed to collect enough money to restore this important place and later transform it into a museum in the year of 1960. Since that moment, several million people visited this institution and heard a story of the suffering that many Jews have gone through, including Anne Frank and her family.
7. Hermitage Amsterdam
When you saw the name of this museum, you probably assumed it is connected to a well-known Hermitage museum located in Saint Petersburg. If so, then you are right. Amstelhof is the name of the building that houses this museum, located not far from Amstel River. This building is quite old and has a long history. Until 2007, it was used as a retirement home. Two years later, in 2009, the museum was officially opened by Queen Beatrix and former President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev.
The connection between the two cities, Amsterdam and St. Petersburg has a long tradition, dating back to the 18th century. Emperor Peter the Great spent a long time in the Dutch city, and then, strong ties developed, so that the Dutch later helped the construction of St. Petersburg. If you visit this museum, you will be able to see that there are still very good relations between the two cities. A large number of magnificent exhibits in Hermitage Amsterdam originate from the museum in Russia.
8. The National Maritime Amsterdam
In the end, we decided to introduce you to the National Maritime Amsterdam, a museum dedicated to the great tradition that the Netherlands has in maritime affairs. Among the objects, you can see are numerous weapons, world maps, scale models, as well as paintings.
The most impressive object you can see is the replica of the ship in the real size that was in the 18th century shipwrecked in the English Channel.
Given the large number of items this museum possesses, you will be able to see those used in maritime affairs in the past 5 centuries.
