Updated 19 September 2026
The centre of Amsterdam is itself an exhibition of seventeenth-century architecture, and several museums occupy buildings that are at least as interesting as what hangs inside. A route past the Rembrandt House, the Waag, the H'ART Museum and the Nieuwe Kerk can be walked in a day.
The Rembrandt House Museum
On Jodenbreestraat stands the house where Rembrandt van Rijn lived and worked between 1639 and 1658. He had his studio there, taught pupils and ran an art dealership. In the end the house proved too much for him: the mortgage weighed heavily, and after his bankruptcy he had to leave. The inventory drawn up at the time has survived and later formed the basis for furnishing the museum.
Visitors walk through the kitchen, living room, cabinet of curiosities and studio, furnished as they may have looked in Rembrandt's day. The museum also owns a large collection of Rembrandt's etchings, shown in changing selections. At set times there are demonstrations in the studio of how paint was made and how an etching is printed. After the Rijksmuseum this is the logical next step: here the focus is not on the masterpieces but on the work and the workshop.
The Waag on Nieuwmarkt
A few minutes' walk from the Rembrandt House stands the Waag, originally the Sint Antoniespoort, a gate in the medieval city wall. It is one of two city gates that survive; of the other, the Regulierspoort, only the lower part of the Munttoren remains. When the city grew beyond its walls, the gate lost its function and became a weigh house. Guilds met on the upper floor, including the surgeons' guild, which held public anatomy lessons there.
The building now houses Waag Futurelab, an organisation working where technology, art and society meet, with a fab lab among other things. Its place in the history of Amsterdam's new media is covered in the article on design and media art.
H'ART Museum on the Amstel
The H'ART Museum occupies the Amstelhof, a large seventeenth-century building on the Amstel between Nieuwe Herengracht and Nieuwe Keizersgracht. Until 1 September 2023 the museum was called Hermitage Amsterdam and worked with the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg. The large building opened on 19 June 2009. After ending its ties with Russia, the museum chose a new name and new partners, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the British Museum in London.
The museum has no permanent collection of note but shows changing exhibitions drawn from the collections of those partner museums, so the programme varies widely from season to season. The courtyard and the old regents' rooms of the Amstelhof are worth seeing in their own right.
The Nieuwe Kerk on Dam Square
Next to the Royal Palace on Dam Square stands the Nieuwe Kerk, which no longer holds services but does host exhibitions, often on cultural history. Every spring the World Press Photo exhibition, with the award-winning press photographs of that year, has its world premiere here; in 2026 it opened on 24 April. The exhibition then tours the world. More on photography in Amsterdam is in the section on photography and film.
A route
A practical order starts at the Rembrandt House, continues via Nieuwmarkt and the Waag through the old centre to Dam Square and ends with a walk along the Amstel to the H'ART Museum. By metro, Waterlooplein station is next to the Rembrandt House and Nieuwmarkt station is by the Waag. The major museums on Museumplein do not fit into the same day unless only one museum is on the list.
For a break there are plenty of cafés around Nieuwmarkt and along the Amstel, and the walk between the stops is short enough to cover on foot.