What to See in Amsterdam - Top Sights and Attractions

Museum of contemporary art and design. The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The 19th century building was designed by Adriaan Willem Weissman and the 21st century wing with the current entrance was designed by Benthem Crouwel Architects. It is located at the Museum Square in the borough Amsterdam South, where it is close to the Van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Concertgebouw.

The collection comprises modern and contemporary art and design from the early 20th century up to the 21st century. It features artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Wassily Kandinsky, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Jackson Pollock, Karel Appel, Andy Warhol, Willem de Kooning, Marlene Dumas, Lucio Fontana, and Gilbert & George.

In 2015, the museum had an estimated 675,000 visitors.^[1]

Waterfront art and culture museum. Hermitage Amsterdam is a branch museum of the Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg, Russia, located on the banks of the Amstel river in Amsterdam. The museum is located in the former Amstelhof, a classical style building from 1681. The dependency displayed small exhibitions in the adjacent Neerlandia Building from 24 February 2004 until the main museum opened on 19 June 2009.

It is currently the largest satellite of the Hermitage Museum, with a total area of 12,846 m2 (138,270 sq ft) and fits with the museum's plan to make its collections accessible to more people. The exhibition area covers 2,172 m2 (23,380 sq ft) and is contained within two large exhibition halls and smaller exhibition rooms. The remaining space holds lecture halls, offices and staff accommodations and a restaurant.^[3]

Art museum housing European masterpieces. The Rijksmuseum is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and the Concertgebouw.

The Rijksmuseum was founded in The Hague on 19 November 1798 and moved to Amsterdam in 1808, where it was first located in the Royal Palace and later in the Trippenhuis. The current main building was designed by Pierre Cuypers and first opened in 1885. On 13 April 2013, after a ten-year renovation which cost € 375 million, the main building was reopened by Queen Beatrix. In 2013 and 2014, it was the most visited museum in the Netherlands with record numbers of 2.2 million and 2.47 million visitors. It is also the largest art museum in the country.

The museum has on display 8,000 objects of art and history, from their total collection of 1 million objects from the years 1200–2000, among which are some masterpieces by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Johannes Vermeer. The museum also has a small Asian collection, which is on display in the Asian pavilion.^[5]

Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Foam or Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam is a photography museum located at the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The museum has four different exhibitions at any given time in which different photographic genres are shown, such as documentary, art and fashion. Next to large exhibitions by well-known photographers, Foam also shows the work of young and upcoming photographers, in shorter running exhibitions.

Two notable shows were Henri Cartier-Bresson - A Retrospective, work by Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Richard Avedon - Photographs 1946–2004, a major retrospective of Richard Avedon. In summer 2016, Foam presented a major Helmut Newton retrospective exhibition.

The museum contains a café, a library, a bookshop, and a commercial gallery called Foam Editions. The museum also publishes a quarterly international photography magazine called Foam Magazine.^[9]

Long-established zoo with aquarium. Natura Artis Magistra, commonly known just as Artis, is a zoo and botanical garden in the centre of Amsterdam. It is the oldest zoo in the Netherlands and one of the oldest zoos of mainland Europe. In addition to the zoo, Artis also contains an aquarium, a planetarium, an arboretum, and a fairly large art and sculpture collection. A part of the art collection is on display in the Aquarium building of the zoo. Artis contains 27 historically significant buildings, bridges, and ponds most of which are still used as animal enclosures, making it a unique place of 19th-century cultural heritage.

The zoo is a member of the Dutch Zoo Federation (NVD), the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), the International Species Information System (ISIS), the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) and the Nederlandse Vereniging van Botanische Tuinen (NVBT).^[12]

World's largest van Gogh collection. The Van Gogh Museum is a Dutch art museum dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in the Museum Square in Amsterdam South, close to the Stedelijk Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Concertgebouw. The museum opened on 2 June 1973, and its buildings were designed by Gerrit Rietveld and Kisho Kurokawa.

The museum contains the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world. In 2017, the museum had 2.3 million visitors and was the most-visited museum in the Netherlands, and the 23rd-most-visited art museum in the world. In 2019, the Van Gogh Museum launched the Meet Vincent Van Gogh Experience, a technology-driven "immersive exhibition" on Van Gogh's life and works, which has toured globally.^[13]

WWII teenage diarist's house museum. The Anne Frank House is a writer's house and biographical museum dedicated to Jewish wartime diarist Anne Frank. The building is located on a canal called the Prinsengracht, close to the Westerkerk, in central Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

During World War II, Anne Frank hid from Nazi persecution with her family and four other people in hidden rooms, in the rear building, of the 17th-century canal house, later known as the Secret Annex (Dutch: Achterhuis). She did not survive the war but her wartime diary was published in 1947. Ten years later the Anne Frank Foundation was established to protect the property from developers who wanted to demolish the block.

The museum opened on 3 May 1960. It preserves the hiding place, has a permanent exhibition on the life and times of Anne Frank, and has an exhibition space about all forms of persecution and discrimination. In 2013 and 2014, the museum had 1.2 million visitors and was the 3rd most visited museum in the Netherlands, after the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum.^[14]

Street in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Heiligeweg is the street in Amsterdam that used to lead from the Kapel ter Heilige Stede to the Kalverstraat. Increasing numbers of pilgrims to this shrine made necessary a new street leading from Sloten to the shrine, and this new street became known as the Holy Way.

Between the Kalverstraat and the Singel may be seen part of the Holy Way in its original medieval form, for constructions built during medieval city expansion may be found here, outside the Holy Way Gate). The way continued roughly along the line of the present Leidsestraat, and further, via the (now lost) Heiligewegse Vaart (later called the Overtoomse Vaart, and since 1902, just the Overtoom). From the Overtoom via the Schinkel the Heiligeweg went on via the Sloterkade and Sloterstraatweg (now the Rijnsburgstraat and Sloterweg) to Sloten. The sections between Sloten and Haarlem has been eaten up by the Haarlemmermeer. Much of the route between Sloten and the Overtoomse Sluis is still present (Sloterweg and Sloterkade). A large part has vanished due to the construction of a business park.

Up to around 1500 this was one of the most important overland routes between Amsterdam and Kennemerland and, from there, with the rest of Holland. In 1904 electric tram number 1 replaced the horse-drawn tram from Leidscheplein – Amstelveenscheweg that had run since 1877. Today the Holy Street is a shopping street connecting the two popular shopping streets Kalverstraat and Leidsestraat to each other. Halfway along the Heiligeweg may be found the Voetboogstraat with its 1603 Rasphuispoortje.^[16]

Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography is the oldest photography museum in Amsterdam, opened in 1999. Huis Marseille was the first photography museum in the Netherlands when it opened in 1999; the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam, the Fotomuseum Den Haag in The Hague, and FOAM in a nearby building have opened since. The museum is housed in a residence built around 1665 for a French merchant, and contains 13 exhibition spaces and a restored room in Louis XIV style; the building was restored and the museum extended into the adjacent building in 2007–2013.

Exhibitions generally use the entire space and have mostly featured documentary photography. They have included Rob Hornstra's Sochi Project, photographs of Kyoto by Jacqueline Hassink, Sarkis' Ring Portraits, work by Juul Kraijer, and various photographers' works portraying dance.^[19]

Horse riding school in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Hollandsche Manege in Amsterdam is the oldest riding school in the Netherlands, dating back to 1744. The current building, inspired by the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, was constructed in 1882. The building has been declared a rijksmonument.

In the Hollandsche Manege, the wealthy citizenry of Amsterdam and members of the Dutch royal house could practice their riding skills. The original Hollandsche Manege was built in 1744 and stood at the corner of the Lijnbaansgracht and Leidsegracht canals. The complex included stables for 60 horses and living quarters for a horse trainer. On the upper floor of the horse trainer's house, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his sister Marianne gave a performance in 1766.

The riding school was demolished in 1881 when the Leidegracht canal was extended as far as the Singelgracht canal. To replace it, a new building in neoclassical style was constructed in 1882 at Vondelstraat 140, on the northeastern edge of the Vondelpark, which at that time was frequently used for horse riding. The new building was designed by the then-popular architect A.L. van Gendt, who also designed the Concertgebouw concert hall and the Amsterdam Centraal railway station.

The richly ornate interior features a main hall with balustrades and a cast-iron roof construction and a hallway from the lobby to the main hall with an iron and glass roof. In 1889 an extension was added onto the back side of the building, facing the street Overtoom. This extension, which included a carriage house, was demolished in 1969.

The present riding school has a stable of 35 horses and 15 ponies. The student riding clubs ASR BLOK and ASR H.O.R.S. have weekly training sessions in the Hollandsche Manege. The building is also used for dressage competitions. The building includes a publicly accessible café/restaurant and is rented out for receptions, weddings, and other events.

In the early 1970s, there were plans to demolish to Hollandsche Manege. Joop Ritmeester van de Kamp, chair of the organisation "De Hollandse Manege", sought to demolish the building and build a new riding school in the Amsterdamse Bos, a manmade forest to the south of Amsterdam. The plans were scrapped after vocal protests, including a petition by art history students at the University of Amsterdam, who collected over 2,000 signatures against the demolition.

In 1986 the building underwent restoration. In 2007 it celebrated its 125-year anniversary. Since 28 May, 2009, the horses are no longer confined to the building but are also regularly let outside on the Koeienweide meadow of the adjacent Vondelpark.^[30]