Dutch VOC Naval History At The Scheepvaart Museum In Amsterdam
The maritime museum in Amsterdam has an incredible exhibition of VOC (Dutch East India Company) artifacts and an entire VOC vessel in its harbor where you can explore the decks and cannons.
Yet another exploration adventure with my sister. This time we picked the Scheepvaart Museum in Amsterdam.
I am really intrigued by the Dutch colonial era and it's naval fleet. The Dutch had an outstanding fleet and dominated most of the world trade back in the early 1600~1700. The Dutch refer to this period as the Golden Age. Lots of money was made and many people became super rich, thus were able to affort all those beautiful paintings being made in that era.
scheepvaart museum in amsterdam
The museum is housed in a former naval storehouse, 's Lands Zeemagazijn or Admiraliteits Magazijn, designed by the Dutch architect Daniël Stalpaert and constructed in 1656. The museum moved to this building in 1973.
The museum is dedicated to maritime history and contains many artifacts associated with shipping and sailing. The collection contains, among other things, paintings, scale models, weapons and world maps.
the amsterdam in all its glory
The paintings depict Dutch naval officers such as Michiel de Ruyter and impressive historical sea battles. The map collection includes works by famed 17th-century cartographers Willem Blaeu and his son Joan Blaeu.
The museum also has a surviving copy of the first edition of Maximilian Transylvanus' work, De Moluccis Insulis, the first to describe Ferdinand Magellan's voyage around the world.
I was shocked to see how small the quaters in the ship were. People in those days must have been really tiny.
Inside the museum they had all kinds of expositions on the Dutch trade, Dutch colonies and weapons. Definitely worth a visit if you hit up Amsterdam next time.
My name is