Guide to Museums in:


Amsterdam

Haarlem

Hague

Rotterdam

Utrecht

THE NETHERLANDS

UTRECHT MUSEUMS

The Centraal Museum is a museum in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Initially, the collection - exhibited on the top floor of the Utrecht townhall - was limited to art related to the city of Utrecht. In 1921 the collection merged with various private collections in the new 'centralised museum' located in the former medieval monastery at the Nicolaaskerkhof. Currently, the collection comprises pre-1850 art, modern art, applied art, fashion and the city history of Utrecht. Amongst the highlights of the museum is the one-thousand year old 'Utrecht Ship'. Another highlight is the collection of paintings by the Utrecht Caravaggians, such as Gerard van Honthorst and Hendrick ter Brugghen. Along with the mannerists Joachim Wtewael, Abraham Bloemaert, Paulus Moreelse and renaissance-painter Jan van Scorel, the carravagists give the collection in Utrecht an international allure.

For more information and enquiries please visit: Nicolaaskerkhof 10, 3512 XC Utrecht, Visit: Nicolaaskerkhof 10, 3512 XC Utrecht, Post: PO Box 2106, 3500 GC Utrecht, Tel: 00 31 (0) 30-2 362 362, E-mail: info@centraalmuseum.nl

Centraal Museum
Photograph © Japiot

The Museum Catharijneconvent is a national museum of religious art in Utrecht. It is located in the former Catharijneconvent. Its collections include those of the museum of religious art of the Catholic Archbishopric of Utrecht, located in the convent until 1979. The Museum Catharijneconvent has an extensive collection of historical and art-historical objects from the early Middle Ages to the present. The collection includes, among other richly illustrated manuscripts, bookbindings decorated with precious stones, richly-worked images, paintings, altarpieces, clothing and ecclesiastical objects in gold and silver. One of the highlights of the collection is ivory-work from the early medieval Lebuinuskelk. Dutch painting of the 16th and 17th centuries is represented by works by Jan van Scorel, Rembrandt, Frans Hals and Pieter Saenredam, and more recent Dutch art by works by Jan Toorop, Shinkichi Tajiri, Frans Franciscus and Marc Mulders.

For more information and enquiries please visit Lange Nieuwstraat 38, 3512 PH Utrecht, The Netherlands, or contact at: P.O. box 8518, 3503 RM Utrecht, The Netherlands, Tel: + 31 (0)30 231 38 35, E-mail: secretariaat@catharijneconvent.nl>

Museum Speelklok is a museum in Utrecht, The Netherlands. It has a collection of automatically playing musical instruments, most of which still work and therefore still can play their music. Among the instruments on display are music boxes, musical clocks, pianolas, barrel organs (including the typically Dutch large street organs) and a turret clock with carillon.

For more information and enquiries please contact Museum Speelklok, Steenweg 6, 3511 JP Utrecht, the Netherlands, Tel: +31 (0)30 231 27 89, E-mail: info@museumspeelklok.nl

The Nederlands Spoorwegmuseum (literally, Dutch Railway Museum) is the Dutch national railway museum. It is housed in the "Maliebaan station", a former station in Utrecht. The museum currently owns a large and varied collection of rolling stock. The collection is too large to be shown in full in the limited space available. For this reason, most of the trams were dropped from the collection in the 1990s, and some of the trains are in storage. The remaining collection is no longer shown by category, as was formerly the practice, but is placed more or less at random. The collection currently on display contains, among other things, steam locomotives, electric locomotives, diesel locomotives, train cars, freight cars, and some trams.

For more information and enquiries please contact Nederlands Spoorwegmuseum, Maliebaanstation, NL-3581 XW Utrecht, Tel: +31(0)30-2306206, E-mail: info@spoorwegmuseum.nl

Nederlands Spoorwegmuseum
Replica of steam locomotive De Arend ("The Eagle")
Photograph © Hdekroon

Museum Maluku is a museum dedicated to the Moluccas and the Moluccan community living in the Netherlands. The original mission of the museum was to preserve and promote Moluccan cultural heritage in the Netherlands. However, the mission of the museum has now expanded to include exhibitions on Moluccans throughout the world, including Indonesia. A playful and informative exhibition about pearls and the bird of paradise, two treasures from the island of Aru, can now be visited in the Museum Maluku (until March 2011). Two prize-winning documentaries on the pearl production and on the search for the Greater Bird of Paradise, made by a Swiss team (VilbrekProd) can be watched in the exhibition as well.

For more information and enquiries please contact Museum Maluku, Kruisstraat 313, 3581 GK Utrecht, Tel: 030-2367116, E-mail: info@museum-maluku.nl

Museum Maluku in Utrecht
Photograph © Inday Lestari