For
a relatively small city, Amsterdam is home to a delightful
abundance of world-class museums. Amsterdam's
museums contain an astonishing number of the worlds' greatest works of art, attracting over 4 million of visitors every year. Some countries in Europe don't get that many visitors, and our museums can be credited for drawing many of them to our city.
For children there is the fascinating museum NEMO, A hands-on, science and technology museum housed in an Avant-garde, boat-shaped building (appropriately located at the harbor).
For many museum and arts lovers, ..for tourists wishing to stay in Amsterdam longer, or even those planning on visiting museums in other Dutch cities The Museum Cardis an ideal solution. In addition to all the well known and not so well known museums, there are a large number of art galleries in Amsterdam to start or add to your own great collection.
Since the opening in 1985 of the Hash Marihuana Hemp Museum in Amsterdam, almost a million interested people have visited this permanent exhibition. Each year, some 95,000 visitors from all parts of the world come to this exceptional centre of culture and knowledge, located at 148 Oudezijds Achterburgwal in the heart of the Red-Light District. As its name suggests, the Museum is dedicated to the cannabis plant and its many uses. The Hash Marihuana Hemp Museum is unique in the world, and offers a true voyage of discovery - one that fits perfectly with any visit to Amsterdam.
The scent of genuine cannabis plants welcomes the visitor when entering the Museum. Inside, all aspects of hemp, cannabis and hashish are explained in detail using a variety of media, including short films and photo collections. The Museum houses a large collection of traditional smoking devices from all over the world. There is also an extensive library of books, photos, posters, and magazines concerned with the culture of cannabis, which range from the 19th Century to the Jazz era and on to contemporary pop culture.
The Hash Marihuana Hemp Museum offers visitors extensive documentation and information about the historical and modern uses of the cannabis plant, as well as its medicinal, religious and cultural applications, not to mention cannabis‘ enormous potential to benefit the environment, agriculture and industry in the future. The Museum shows how hemp has evolved to become one of humanity‘s most valuable renewable resources.
Although cannabis is considered controversial in many places of the world, the Hash Marihuana Hemp Museum aims to provide an objective picture of this remarkable plant. It is to be expected that scientists will discover many more uses for the cannabis plant. At the museum, visitors will be able to gain a deeper insight into all of this, because a visit will bring a wealth of information. In the Hash Marihuana Hemp Museum, the past, present and future of the cannabis plant are merging together.
Address:
Oudezijdsachterburgwal 148
1012 DV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Open: All week from 10.00 until 23.00 hours.
Admission: € 9.00
Groups, 10 persons or more € 7.00
Free admission for children under 13 yrs. accompanied by adults.
Tram stop: De Dam. (Dam Square)
5-minute walk from Central Station.
This is the official Royal Palace of the Netherland's
Royal Family and located prominently on Dam Square.
It is usually open to the public, if not being
used for special occasions or staging public
ceremonies.
An interesting note:"Rembrandt
actually lost the bid to paint the interor
decoration murials in the Palace" ... Imagine what it would be worth now If he had gotten the job?
Amsterdam’s Royal Palace is in the heart of the city, on Dam Square. Like Huis ten Bosch Palace and Noordeinde Palace, it has been placed at the Queen’s disposal by Act of Parliament.
1648 - A new city hall: The palace was originally built as a city hall for the burgomaster and magistrates of Amsterdam, who awarded the project to the celebrated architect Jacob van Campen in 1648.
Van Campen also had a hand in building Huis ten Bosch and Noordeinde Palace in The Hague. The entire building is made of white stone, though centuries of weathering have left none of the original colour visible. On 29 July 1655, the city of Amsterdam opened the first section of the building.
Decoration: At that time, only two floors had been completed and decorated. Renowned sculptors were brought to Amsterdam and famous painters, such as Rembrandt and Ferdinand Bol, contributed to the interior. The central aim of the decoration was to symbolise the power of Amsterdam and the Dutch Republic.
1808 - From City Hall to Royal Palace: The building served as the city hall for some 150 years.
It was first used as a palace for a few days in 1768, when Prince William V, stadholder of the Netherlands, and his wife, Wilhelmina of Prussia, were given a ceremonial welcome in Amsterdam.
In 1806 Louis Bonaparte, Emperor Napoleon’s brother, became King of Holland. He first lived in The Hague, but in 1807 he moved to Amsterdam, which was of greater economic importance. In 1808, he took the city hall on Dam Square as his Royal Palace.
Empire style
The architect J.T. Thibault supervised its redecoration in the Empire style. A Royal Museum, the predecessor of the city’s Rijksmuseum, was also established in the Palace.
After Louis abdicated and the Netherlands was annexed by France, on 2 July 1810, the French governor, Charles Francois Lebrun, received permission from the Emperor to live in the Palace.
1813 - King Willem I:
After the fall of Napoleon in 1813, Prince Willem of Orange, later King Willem I, returned the Palace to the city of Amsterdam.
After his investiture, however, the new King realised the importance of having a home in the capital and asked the city authorities to make the Palace available for Royal use once again. It was not until 1936 that the building actually became state property.
The Palace today: The Royal Palace in Amsterdam is now used mainly for entertaining and official functions, such as state visits, the Queen’s New Year receptions and other official receptions.
Every year, the Palace is the setting for the presentation of the Erasmus Prize, the Silver Carnation, the Royal Awards for Painting and the Prince Claus Award.
* The foundation that manages the Palace opens it to the public when it is not in use by the Royal House. Every summer, an exhibition highlights one historical or artistic feature of the building is presented. Following the annual presentation of the Royal Awards for Painting in October, the prize-winning works of art are then put on public display.
Information for visitors:
Information on exhibitions and educational projects at the Royal Palace, Amsterdam, and on guided tours of the palace can be found at www.paleisamsterdam.nl.
Open:
June to August 11.00 - 17.00 hours - September to May 12.00 - 17.00 hours (Closed Monday)
* This website also provides information on the Royal Awards for Painting.
Multatuli Museum Arguably the most important Dutch writer of the 19th century took his pen-name Multatuli (much experienced) from Roman poet Ovid.
Born in Amsterdam in 1820 as Eduard Douwes Dekker, a son of a Dutch ship captain, Multatuli achieved through his writings prominence lasting until our days. A small museum in the house of his birth, reminds his life and his writings. In a modest patrician house on one of the smaller streets of the Old Amsterdam centre, is this small modest museum dedicated to one of the most celebrated of Dutch writers.
After his birth one more son was born in the family, so they had to move to a larger lodging. Multatuli’s upbringing although patrician, was very modest, with his father mostly at sea and mother taking care of all the children. In 1910, the society to memorize Multatuli was established and took as one of its aims the collecting of manuscripts and objects linked to the writers past. At first this collection was stored at the University Library of Amsterdam and since 1957, while the actual manuscripts have remained there, all other objects and books have been moved to the newly established Multatuli Museum, which is the house of his birth. Actually, the writer’s family had only one floor of this small house at Korsjespoortsteeg 20, while today the museum has two. The museum transports its visitors back to the writer’s time, to his life and ultimately to his writings.
The very modest museum is appropriately Free to enter. Through its simplicity the Multatuli Museum tells a lot about the writer’s life. His childhood was a humble one and full of difficulties. At the same time Multatuli's extensive travels and especially his writings were extraordinarily progressive for his time, These elements can be felt today in these few modest rooms. Multatuli defended in his most known novel “Max Havelaar” the colonized people of the Dutch East Indies, This during the times when the idea of equality of the human races was certainly not popular.
If you are interested in history, especially the history of the Netherlands, this little museum will be an insightful addition for sure.
Admission:is free: Guided tours by the Museum’s curator Jos van Waterschoot is only € 3,50 (minimum 5 persons).
The museum sells books as well as school related materials by and about Multatuli.
How to get there:
You will find the Multatuli Museum in Korsjespoortsteeg, a small street between Singel and Herengracht, close to Brouwersgracht, not far form the Central Station (10 minute walk).
By tram from the Central Station: Tram lines 1, 2, 5, 13, 17; get off at the first stop (Nieuwezijds Kolk). Arriving form other parts of the city use the Go/Stop bus and exit near the Brouwersgracht ..then a short 5 minute walk.
Address:
Multatuli Museum
Korsjespoortsteeg 20
1012 LK Amsterdam
Telephone:+31206381938
