Art Galleries, Museums & Open-Air Museums
in the Netherlands

Focusing on the great civilisations of the ancient world, the Allard Pierson is the archaeological museum of the University of Amsterdam. Among its collections is much material from ancient Egypt, the Near East, and the Mediterranean, including a noted selection of classical Greek pottery and Roman sarcophagi. Also at the museum are a selection of rare books, cartographic material, and one of Europe’s largest Jewish collections.
The museum takes its name from a 19th-century clergyman who served as the university’s first professor of classical archaeology.

The Archaeological Museum Haarlem occupies the cellar of the Vleeshal, a 17th-century building on the Grote Markt where the city’s residents once bought their fresh meat. The museum explores the archaeology of Haarlem and of the Kennemerland region more broadly, covering the area’s prehistoric inhabitants through to the urban developments of the Middle Ages. Temporary exhibits supplement the main display collection. The Frans Hals Museum is located in the same building and hosts an exhibit of modern and contemporary art.

Based in Leeuwarden, the Fries Museum first opened its doors in 1881. Created by a group committed to the preservation of Frisian culture, it explores the distinct heritage of the Frisian people, different in various respects from that of communities elsewhere in the Netherlands. Collections include substantial quantities of medieval and early modern material as well as a display devoted to the famous spy Mata Hari, who was born in Leeuwarden. The museum relocated to a new, state-of-the-art building in 2013.

From the late 16th century on, the Netherlands established itself as one of the world’s major maritime powers, a period sometimes referred to as the Dutch Golden Age. Visitors can learn more about this period, and the Dutch relationship with the sea more broadly, at the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam. Occupying a structure built in 1656, the museum underwent a major refurbishment completed in 2011. As well as its internal displays, the museum hosts a replica of the Amsterdam, a Dutch East India Company vessel that sank in 1749.

At the Hunebed Centre (Hunebedcentrum) archaeological museum in Drenthe, visitors are transported back into prehistory. Located only a short distance from D27, the largest known dolmen (‘hunebed’) in the Netherlands, the Hunebed Centre focuses on the story of the Neolithic (New Stone Age) people who build these monuments. As well as an indooor museum displaying archaeological finds from the area, the Hunebed Centre includes a reconstructed Neolithic village. The museum is located inside the De Hondsrug UNESCO Global Geopark.

The Netherlands has a long heritage as a maritime nation, and during the Dutch Golden Age of the 16th and 17th centuries the coastal settlement at Texel was an important hub for shipping. This heritage is now showcased at the Kaap Sil Museum, which preserves historic structures such as fishermen’s cottages, a grain mill, a smithy and a bakery. Although originally an open-air museum, these structures are now protected from the elements by an overarching roof. The indoor museum displays feature many artefacts recovered from shipwrecks off the Dutch coast.

Originally established in 1866, the Kunstmuseum den Haag (or Art Museum of the Hague) now occupies a purpose-built art deco structure designed by the architect H.P. Berlage during the 1930s, one with sumptuous high-quality interiors. The museum is now home to over 160,000 works of art, ranging from collections of Delftware and Persian ceramics through to paintings by ‘modern masters’ like Monet, Picasso, and Kandinsky. The museum also boasts one of the world’s largest collections of works by the abstract painter Piet Mondrian.

With an array of interactive exhibits, the Maritime Museum at Rotterdam is not your typical museum. Visitors can learn hands on about the history of seafaring and go aboard some of the real working ships docked in the adjacent harbour. The museum also houses an array of impressive artefacts, such as the oldest model ship in Europe, dating back to the 15th century, and one of only three surviving original world maps drawn by the famed cartographer Gerard Mercator. The museum also hosts a library for those undertaking research into maritime history.

Located in the centre of the Hague, the Mauritshuis is an art gallery occupying a 17th-century building originally designed as the home of John Maurice of Nassau. Maurice was a powerful man, serving as governor of Dutch Brazil, and the red-brick house reflected his social status, as well as the Dutch architectural fashions of the day. Today, the Mauritshuis has a substantial collection of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish paintings, including world-famous works like Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” and Rembrandt’s “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp.”

The Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle is a gallery of the visual arts. Its collection stretches as far back as the Middle Ages, although modern art forms the dominant part of its displays. Originally established in 1958, the museum has moved homes over the years. Today, it is housed in a building that intriguingly combines a neoclassical façade with a giant, post-modernist glass dome stuck onto the back. Even if the mish-mashed architecture is not to your taste, a viewing platform offers impressive views across the city.