Rijksmuseum 🇳🇱

The Rijksmuseum is the largest art museum in the Netherlands, situated at Museum Square in the Amsterdam South district. It stands near several other prominent culture sites, including the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and the Royal Concertgebouw. Dedicated to national art, crafts, and history spanning from 1200 to 2000, the institution holds a vast collection of one million objects, with approximately 8,000 pieces on public exhibition.

The museum was established in The Hague on November 19, 1798, and officially opened to the public in 1800 at the Huis ten Bosch palace. Following moves to the Prince William V Gallery and then to Amsterdam in 1808 under King Louis Bonaparte, the collection resided in the Royal Palace and the Trippenhuis. Construction on a permanent facility began in 1876 after a design contest won by Pierre Cuypers, whose structure combined Gothic and Renaissance architectural styles. Decorated with elements celebrating Dutch art history, the main building opened in July 1885.

The main building features two central squares with atria, linked along a central ground-level tunnel that sits beneath the first-floor Gallery of Honour. To the southwest lies a separate structure built from fragments of demolished buildings, known as the Philips Wing, which illustrates Dutch architectural history. The site also includes an Asian pavilion designed by the firm Cruz y Ortiz, alongside the country's largest art history research library. A major ten-year renovation costing €375 million concluded in 2013, fully restoring interior decorations and reopening the central spaces.

Visitors to the museum can view significant collections of Dutch Golden Age paintings, featuring works by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Johannes Vermeer, and Jan Steen. The Night Watch by Rembrandt holds a prominent central placement in the Night Watch Room at the end of the Hall of Fame. Other notable artifacts on display range from the stern crest of the captured naval ship HMS Royal Charles and the historic Hartog plate to an FK35 Bantam biplane and specialized Asian art items.

Serving as the nation's most visited museum, the venue recorded over 2.4 million visitors in a single year following its 2013 reopening. In addition to its exhibition halls, the facility houses RIJKS®, a 140-seat restaurant in the Philips Wing that received a Michelin star in 2017.

Rijksmuseum in pictures