The Most Popular Museums In The Netherlands

The museums of the Netherlands give attention to both local and international arts and culture. Many of these museums experience a large volume of visitors, the majority of which are located in Amsterdam, the capital city of the Netherlands.

Rijksmuseum

Rijksmuseum is the largest art museum in the country, and was founded in 1800 in The Hague. It was later transferred to Amsterdam in 1808. The current building was designed by Pierre Cuypers and was officially launched in 1835. The Rijksmuseum building was renovated both in 2013 and 2014, with renovation costs estimated at €345 million. In 2016, Rijksmuseum had the highest number of visits with 2.2 million people. The record of the highest visits was in 2014 with a total of 2,474,352 visitors. The visits in 2015 were 2,345,666 visitors.

The museum is well known for arts, crafts, and history. The pieces on display represent a period of history from 1200 to 2000. The number of objects on display is estimated to be 8,000. Out of the 8,000 objects, more than 2,000 are Dutch paintings from famous painters who existed during the Dutch Golden Age. The Asian pavilion contains a collection of Asian arts. The Rijksmuseum has developed a special website containing 125,000 high resolution images of objects in the display. The web platform will be expanded each year until all the one million objects in the museum are uploaded. Apart from the objects on display in the main museum, there is an attached research library. This library is the biggest history research library in the Netherlands.

Van Gogh Museum

The Van Gogh Museum was officially opened in 1973 and it is located in southern Amsterdam. The museum building was initially designed by Gerrit Rietveld and Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa. The museum was commissioned by the government for the display of the art works of Vincent Van Gogh. The arts on display include 700 letters, 200 paintings and 400 drawings. These pieces of arts are organized according to phases of Van Gogh’s life. The museum also contains arts from other contemporaries and prominent sculptures. The number of visitors to the museum in 2016 was 2.1 million putting Van Gogh museum as the second most visited museum in Netherlands. 2015 saw total visits of 1.9 million people, ranking as the 31st most visited museum in the world. The museum offer tours, lectures, and workshops to the visitors.

Anne Frank House

Anne Frank House is a biographical museum located in central Amsterdam and is dedicated to the Jewish diarist, Anne Frank. The museum was constructed for the display of the artistic works of Anne Frank. It was officially launched in 1960. The construction of the museum was lobbied by Anne Frank Foundation. The foundation bought the canal house where Anne Frank and four others hid during the Second World War. They remained hidden in the Canal house for two years and one month until they were betrayed and arrested by Nazi authorities, and deported to the concentration camps. Only Anne Frank's father, Otto Frank, survived. The arts on display include the Diary of Anne Frank and Academy Award of Shelley Winters. In 2016, the Anne Frank House had 1.3 million visits making it the third most visited museum in Netherlands.