Het Scheepvaartmuseum (National Maritime Museum)

Het Scheepvaartmuseum occupies 's Lands Zeemagazijn, a vast naval storage warehouse completed in 1656 by architect Daniël Stalpaert to hold rigging, sails and equipment for the Dutch navy — a building whose sheer scale reflects how central seafaring was to Amsterdam's Golden Age wealth and power. It's been the national maritime museum since 1973, and the building itself, arranged around a large covered inner courtyard, is as much a highlight as the collection inside.

The collection traces Dutch maritime history from the VOC (Dutch East India Company) era of global trade and colonial expansion, through naval warfare, whaling and shipbuilding, to the modern Dutch merchant fleet — including ship models, marine paintings, navigational instruments and objects tied directly to the VOC's complicated global legacy, which the museum addresses more directly than it once did.