Museums in Amsterdam and the Red Light District
Amsterdam ranks first as the city with most cultural attractions per capita and museums play a large part in getting that high ranking. There are a total of 144 museums in Amsterdam. Some of them are world renowned like the Rijksmuseum, which has a collection that spans 800 years of Dutch History, or the Van Gogh Museum which has the largest collection of paintings done by the famous painter. Another museum in Amsterdam that attracts many international visitors is the Anne Frank Museum located in and around the old canal house where she went into hiding from the Nazi occupiers.
With so many museums in Amsterdam some are bound to be located within the Red Light District. One really fitting museum located in the district is the museum called Red Light Secrets. This is the first museum in the world dedicated solely to prostitution. Here you can learn a whole lot about prostitution in Amsterdam and you can even sit behind a red lit window for all to see! Another museum in Amsterdam in the Red Light District is the Hash, Marihuana & Hemp Museum, here you’ll find everything there is to know about the magical hemp plant: it’s history, what can be produced from it and how the drugs are actually extracted.
Within the Red Light District stands one of the most overlooked museums of Amsterdam. Hidden in the attic of an old Amsterdam canal house dating back to the 17th century stands an actual complete Catholic church. What makes this museum extra interesting is the fact that you get to see a canal house from the inside preserved and restored like it was still the 17th century. The hidden church stands as a symbol of Dutch tolerance right after the reformation. The city had become majority protestant but still allowed for other religious practices as long as they were kept out of public view.
Below you’ll find a further selection of the best museums that Amsterdam and the Red Light District have to offer. The selection is ordered from top-to-bottom, top being the very best in the Red Light District followed by the rest in Amsterdam.
