Michelle Harbi recommends lesser-known museums to check out in the capital
Amsterdam is blessed when it comes to show-shopping museums. The mighty triumvirate of the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and Anne Frank House – the first two of which reopened last year following large-scale revamps – together attract upwards of 4.5 million visitors a year.
Inevitably, that means queues to get in are likely at peak times – but for the time-pressed traveller, the city has more than 70 lesser-known museums to explore that provide a fascinating insight into this characterful capital. Here’s an alternative selection to seek out next time you’re in town.
MUSEUM OF THE CANALS
Amsterdam life revolves around its canals, and whether you are a first-timer or regular visitor, a trip to Het Grachtenhuis (Museum of the Canals) is a great way to get your bearings or throw a fresh perspective on the city.
Set across six rooms of an attractive Herengracht canal house is an imaginative multimedia exhibition that tells the story of the waterways and, in doing so, provides a pit-stop journey through 400 years of the city’s history.
Intricate 3D models and clever technology take you through the conception and building of the canal ring – now a UNESCO World Heritage site – in the 17th century.
In one room, a huge doll's house depicts the lives of residents over the centuries, while spy holes lining the walls allow you to look into the houses and see their past and present use – from art dealers selling Dutch masters in the Golden Age to today’s modern homes and museums.
Screens juxtapose paintings of the earliest canal dwellers with videos of today’s residents partying at Pride and on public holidays. However the city changes in the next 400 years, there’s no doubt the canals will remain at the heart of it all.
Open 10am-5pm Tues-Sun; entry e10. Herengracht 386; hetgrachtenhuis.nl
MUSEUM VAN LOON
For another perspective on the city’s rich heritage, pay a visit to Museum Van Loon. Built in 1672, the first resident of this elegant private home on the Keizersgracht was artist Ferdinand Bol, a pupil of Rembrandt.
In 1884 it was bought by the Van Loon family, descendants of the founder of the Dutch East India Company, who have since opened it up to the public.
The 18th-century Louis XV interiors have been kept largely intact, and wandering through the grand, high-ceilinged rooms provides a fascinating insight into how the other (Dutch) half lived, with their exquisite furniture, art and antiquities sourced from across Europe and the East. There is also a pretty garden laid out in the formal style of the time, and a coach house with carriages on display.
Open 11am-5pm daily (closed Tues); entry e8. Keizersgracht 672; museumvanloon.nl
OUR LORD IN THE ATTIC
Rather incongruously placed in the den of iniquity that is the red light district is this serene secret Catholic church.
In 1661, at a time when the public celebration of mass was banned, wealthy Catholic merchant Jan Hartman bought a canal house on Oudezijds Voorburgwal. On the first floor he built a grand reception room – perfectly preserved – which he used to receive guests, but this was a smokescreen for his real purpose. Upstairs he constructed a church for worshippers to attend mass away from public view.
For more than two centuries, it served as a city-centre parish church. Following the opening of St Nicholas’s church nearby, in 1888 Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder (Our Lord in the Attic) became a museum and, last year, a three-year restoration was completed to mark its 125th anniversary.
Ascend the wooden staircase from the living rooms – passing by the telltale holy water font for worshippers to bless themselves – and the chapel is spectacularly revealed at the top.
It’s not a furtive, dark space as one might expect, but a beautifully decorated double-height room, painted in the pink Caput Mortuum shade it would have sported in the mid-1800s.
Its ornate altar features a 1716 painting by Jacob de Wit of the baptism of Christ, topped by a stucco sculpture of God looking down, while the imposing pipe organ dates back to 1794. Look out of the front windows on to the canal, and passersbys are as blissfully unaware of its existence as they would have been centuries ago.
Open 10am-5pm daily (from 1pm Sat-Sun); entry e8. Oudezijds Voorburgwal 40; opsolder.nl
CAT CABINET
The Dutch love their cats, and the founder of the Kattenkabinet, Bob Meijer, loved his red tomcat John Pierpont Morgan (named after the US banker) so much that he created a museum in its memory.
Housed in another Herengracht canal house, it documents the role felines have played in art and culture over the centuries. Across the elegant rooms you’ll find everything from the sublime – works by Rembrandt, Picasso and Toulouse-Lautrec – to the ridiculous – a “Lucky Cat” pinball machine designed by Japan’s Tadaaki Narita.
You’ll also discover Grizabella’s costume from the musical Cats, a Russian cartoon playing on a loop, a 1953 sculpture of cats having sex, vintage French adverts for cigarettes and alcohol, and a Second World War US army recruitment poster. It’s lots of fun, and, occasionally, just a bit spooky.
In the JP Morgan memorial corner are presents given to Meijer’s moggy, including a US dollar bill with its face in place of George Washington’s (with the words “We trust no dog” replacing “In God we trust”) and a Louis Vuitton briefcase-cum-cat toilet. John Pierpont Morgan was clearly a pampered pet. No one is irreplaceable, however – Meijer still lives upstairs, so expect to see his newer cats padding around.
Open 10am-5pm daily (from 12pm Sat-Sun); entry e6. Herengracht 497; kattenkabinet.nl
MUSEUM OF BAGS AND PURSES
A short walk along the Herengracht will take you to a museum celebrating another common obsession – the bag.
Antique dealer Hendrikje Ivo’s love for collecting them started when she came across a 19th-century German tortoiseshell bag inlaid with mother-of-pearl in a small antique shop near Norwich. It led to the founding of the Tassenmuseum (the Museum of Bags and Purses), which moved to its new Amsterdam house in 2007.
The collection numbers more than 4,000 pieces spanning five centuries. Bridal bags, school bags, evening bags, purses, satchels, clutches, boat-shaped, cupcake-shaped and telephone-shaped bags – they’re all here, along with ritzy numbers from Prada, Hermès, Chanel, Dior and Gucci.
This will be heaven to anyone who has contemplated spending obscene figures on their arm candy, but even if you are indifferent, at best, to the workings of the humble handbag, there will be plenty to interest you.
Follow the evolution of the bag through the displays and you’ll see how it has been influenced not just by fashion but technology and the changing role of women. Men shouldn’t feel left out either – manbags on display range from a 16th-century French buckle bag to a colourful Paul Smith satchel. Until August 31 there is a special exhibition of suitcases and travel bags through the years.
Open 10am-5pm daily; entry e9.50. Herengracht 573; tassenmuseum.nl
FOAM
This innovative photography museum stages changing exhibitions that celebrate well-known names as well as champion new artists. Previous shows have presented the works of Diane Arbus, Anton Corbijn and Cy Twombly.
At the same time it has been building its own permanent collection, which now numbers 450 photos. When I visited, a selection of these was on show in its “Reflected” exhibition – some playful, some abstract, some observational, all emotive. Films and installations are also included.
The ground-floor space is flooded with light from the lush rear garden, while up a narrow spiral staircase at the top of the building, Foam Editions displays affordable limited-edition prints
to buy.
Showing until September 9 is an exhibition of US director and photographer Larry Clark’s typically provocative “Tulsa” and “Teenage Lust” series (he directed the 1995 film Kids). Anoek Steketee’s and Eefje Blankevoort’s documentary project “Love Radio” marks 20 years since the Rwandan genocide, while “Don’t Stop Now” examines developments in fashion photography (both until September 7).
Open 10am-6pm Sat-Wed, 10am-9pm Thurs-Fri; entry e9.50. Keizersgracht 609; foam.org
ELECTRIC LADYLAND
Here's something a little more far out. American artist, hippie and Jimi Hendrix fan Nick Padalino founded Electric Ladyland – the First Museum of Fluorescent Art – in 1999 to show off his collection of minerals, art and curiosities sourced from his travels around the world. In the Jordaan district, it’s located under Padalino’s art gallery and shop.
Descend the steep staircase as “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” plays, and you’ll discover the centrepiece of the collection. The “Fluorescent Environment” (left) is a day-glo, cave-like plastic opus that took Padalino seven years to build. He then turns the lights off to wave long- and short-wave lamps over rocks, gemstones and all manner of objects to show how they transform under ultraviolet light.
Highlights include 1950s art from New Jersey – “the fluorescent mineral capital of the world” – and a black-light poster of Jimi Hendrix, by the guitarist’s brother. As you emerge into the light, the outside world will seem very dull indeed.
Open 1pm-6pm Tues-Sat (1.30pm in summer); entry e5. Tweede Leliedwarsstraat 5; electric-lady-land.com
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