Rijksmuseum
One million objects collected over 200 years — and the 8,000 on display include the Dutch Golden Age painters who changed what art could be.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Amsterdam offline.
The national museum of Dutch art and history, in a Pierre Cuypers building that opened in 1885 and reopened in 2013 after a decade-long, €375 million restoration. The collection was assembled through purchase and donation over two centuries, not inherited from a royal treasury.
What to look for
- Works by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Vermeer — the three Golden Age masters whose paintings are the core of what the museum was built to hold
- The Asian pavilion, a separate wing housing a small collection that sits apart from the Dutch art and history rooms
- The Cuypers building itself, whose 1885 design gives the museum its distinctive character on Museum Square
On Museum Square in Amsterdam South — the Van Gogh Museum and Stedelijk Museum are within walking distance, so plan for more than one stop.
Rijksmuseum is one of 36 sights worth the detour in Amsterdam, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Amsterdam pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Amsterdam
- Amstel RiverAmsterdam literally means "Amstel Dam" — the city takes its name from a medieval dam built across this river.
- Van Gogh MuseumThe world's largest Van Gogh collection exists because his sister-in-law spent years refusing to let his unsold work disappear.
- WeespA town that Holland deliberately over-fortified — then flooded on purpose to hold back armies.
- Johan Cruyff ArenaThe Netherlands' largest stadium exists because Amsterdam lost the 1992 Olympics bid to Barcelona — and built something better anyway.
- Defence Line of Amsterdam (Stelling van Amsterdam)Dutch engineers turned the polder itself into a weapon: flood the fields to about 30 centimetres — too shallow for boats to cross — and Amsterdam becomes an island.
- Stedelijk Museum AmsterdamA 1895 Dutch Neo-Renaissance shell now feeds into a 21st-century wing — and the art inside runs from Matisse and Kandinsky to Warhol and Marlene Dumas without flinching.