The 7 best museums in Rotterdam

Maritime Museum Rotterdam

The Maritime Museum is the oldest and largest harbour museum in the Netherlands and traces back the port city’s history and the enormous effect shipping has on the city’s day-to-day life with more than 500,000 objects. The museum takes you on a journey through the maritime past and present in modern exhibitions.

The museum consists of various exhibitions. Listen to fascinating stories, join in fun activities and uncover the secrets of maritime crafts and shipbuilding. See historic vessels, cranes and ship models from six different centuries, take a journey through time and discover how the port of Rotterdam developed.

Nederlands Fotomuseum

The Fotomuseum is a testimony to the diverse Dutch photography scene, covering archives of 129 Dutch photographers and preserving the country’s photographic heritage. The exhibitions reflect the world we live in and aim to enrich it with visuals that matter.

With an impressive collection of more than 5.5 million photos, the Nederlands Fotomuseum is easily the Netherlands’ national museum of photography. Next to the country’s photographic heritage you can also find international exhibitions here that strongly focus on innovation and documentation.  

Wereldmuseum

The Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam’s ethnographic museum, covers the past and present of various cultures. The collection of art and utensils from cultures all over the world grew more or less 'at random' with objects that Dutch missionaries, sailors, soldiers and merchants brought back from all over the world as 'trophies'.

They all tell a human story. Stories about universal themes such as celebrating, mourning, decorating, praying, loving and fighting. They show that apart from the differences, we are all the same: human beings.

Since 2017, the World Museum has worked closely with the National Museum of World Cultures, which consists of the Tropenmuseum, the Afrika Museum and the Volkenkunde Museum. Together, these collections contain nearly 450,000 objects, 260,000 photographic images and some 350,000 items of documentary imagery.