Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum
The Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum — known internationally as the Maritime Museum — is the national maritime heritage institution of the Netherlands, housed in the historic Arsenal building on Amsterdam’s Eastern Docklands. Its collection of over 400,000 objects, spanning ship models, charts, paintings, navigational instruments and logbooks, tells the story of the Dutch maritime world from the 17th-century Golden Age to the present. A life-size replica of the Dutch East India Company vessel Amsterdam is moored alongside the building.
At a glance
- Type
- National maritime museum
- Period
- Arsenal building completed 1656; museum founded 1916; major renovation 2011
- Style
- Dutch Classical (building); mixed contemporary interior
- Location
- Kattenburgerplein 1, 1018 KK Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Coordinates
- 52.3717° N, 4.9128° E
Overview
The Maritime Museum occupies the former Admiralty Arsenal, a monumental 17th-century warehouse on the Oosterdok that once stored the ropes, anchors, cannons and provisions for the Dutch fleet. The museum was established in 1916 and reopened in 2011 after an extensive renovation that added a spectacular glass-and-steel roof over the historic inner courtyard. Its collections are among the largest maritime collections in the world, encompassing maps, instruments, artworks and ship models spanning four centuries of Dutch seafaring.
History
The Arsenal was built between 1655 and 1656 by city architect Daniel Stalpaert to serve the Amsterdam Admiralty, at the time one of five regional boards administering the Dutch navy. For more than two centuries the building functioned as a naval supply depot, one of the largest in Europe. After the decline of Dutch naval power, the building was repurposed and eventually handed over to the newly founded national maritime museum in 1916. A transformative renovation completed in 2011 restored the exterior stonework and introduced the celebrated glass roof, turning the inner courtyard into a year-round gathering space.
What you see
The permanent galleries are organised thematically — from the mechanics of navigation to the human stories of sailors, merchants and enslaved people carried in Dutch ships. Highlights include an immense collection of portolan charts and sea atlases, Dutch maritime paintings by masters such as Willem van de Velde the Younger, and a room dedicated to the royal barge built for Louis Napoleon in 1818. The full-size replica of the VOC ship Amsterdam, moored in the Oosterdok, allows visitors to step onto the gun deck and into the captain’s quarters of a typical 18th-century East Indiaman.
Cultural significance
The Scheepvaartmuseum preserves the collective memory of the Dutch maritime empire — a story of extraordinary commercial ambition, cartographic innovation and profound human cost — and presents it with scholarly rigour and critical honesty. As the custodian of the world’s largest historical maritime collection in a purpose-built 17th-century naval facility, it holds a unique position in European cultural heritage.
Practical information
- Address
- Kattenburgerplein 1, 1018 KK Amsterdam
- Opening hours
- Check official website for current schedule
- Admission
- Check official website for current prices
- Website
- hetscheepvaartmuseum.nl
Getting there
From Amsterdam Centraal station, take bus 22 or 48 to Kattenburgerplein, a short ride through the Eastern Docklands. Alternatively, the museum is a pleasant 20-minute walk from the centre along the IJ waterfront. Bicycle parking is available on site, and water taxis connect the Eastern Docklands to the city centre in summer.