For April, we dedicate our South Holland Top 10 List to museums, giving you the ten most popular museums in Zuid-Holland. With nearly 100 museums located in the province, there is an abundance of options when it comes to art, culture, science and history. Which museums do people most frequently head to in The Hague, Rotterdam, Leiden or elsewhere in South Holland?
The following list of South Holland’s Top 10 Museums is based on 2012 visitor numbers according to the organization Nederlandse Museumvereniging.
1) GEMEENTE MUSEUM DEN HAAG: The most visited in The Hague AND Zuid Holland, the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag had 375,000 visitors during 2012. Even American President Barak Obama stopped by for a quick visit at the end of the Nuclear Security Summit in March.
2) NATURALIS: Leiden’s most popular museum is the second most popular in Zuid Holland and thirteenth overall in the Netherlands. It is the official Dutch national museum of natural history. During 2012 it was visited by 251,200 people.
3) BOIJMANS VAN BEUNINGEN: Rotterdam’s top museum is Zuid-Holland’s third most popular with 249,999 visitors in 2012.
4) MUSEON: The Hague’s natural history museum, adjacent to the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, ranked #4 with 192,200 visitors. Across all museums in the Netherlands, it ranked #22.
5) RIJKSMUSEUM VAN OUDHEDEN: The Netherlands’ national museum of antiquities was visited by 143,000 people in 2012 and ranked as the fifth most popular museum in Zuid Holland. It owns one of the top ten Egyptian collections in the world.
6) MARITIEM MUSEUM ROTTERDAM: The oldest maritime museum in the Netherlands (founded 1874) is the second most visited museum in Rotterdam and is the sixth most visited in Zuid Holland.
7) PANORAMA MESDAG: The centerpiece of the museum is the 120-meter circular painting displayed in a cylindrical metal shell not far from the Peace Palace. It was painted by Hendrik W. Mesdag and completed in 1881. In 2012 the museum was visited by 137,325 people. It is South Holland’s seventh most popular museum overall.
8) MUSEUM VOLKEKUNDE: The Dutch national museum of ethnology, located in Leiden, is Zuid Holland’s eighth most popular museum. In 2012 it was visited 133,000 times.
9) HORTUS BOTANICUS LEIDEN: Established in 1590 as part of Leiden University, it is the oldest botanical garden in the Netherlands and one of the oldest in all of Europe. It was visited over 112,000 times in 2012 and ranked #9 among the most visited museums in Zuid Holland.
10) WERELDMUSEUM ROTTERDAM: The Rotterdam museum for geography and ethnology was founded in 1885 and 127 years later, ranked tenth among the most popular museums in Zuid Holland. It had 102,900 visitors in 2012.
One important footnote about this list of the Ten Most Popular Museums in South Holland, is that the MAURITSHUIS museum was closed for most of 2012 due to the extensive renovations which started in February of that year. The museum is set to reopen on 27 June. Based on the number of visitors it had in 2011, the last full year it was open, it will likely return to this list in 2014, even with only being open for half a year.
For a listing of the many Museums & Monuments in Zuid-Holland, click here.
For a listing of current exhibitions, click here.