Museum Willet-Holthuysen: the grand mansion on the Herengracht

Updated on October 2, 2026

Museum Willet-Holthuysen, at Herengracht 605, takes visitors inside a canal house as it was lived in by a wealthy couple of collectors in the 19th century. The house was built from 1685 to 1687 for Jacob Hop, a prominent citizen, and was given a Louis XIV-style facade around 1739. Abraham Willet and Louisa Holthuysen filled it with paintings, silver, glassware and porcelain; on her death in 1895, Louisa bequeathed the house and its collections to the city, on condition that it become a museum bearing both their names, which opened on 1 May 1896. Part of the Amsterdam Museum, it is open every day from 10am to 5pm; an adult ticket costs €15, and entry is free for under-18s. Allow about 1 hour for the reception rooms on the main floor, the basement kitchen and the formal French-style garden.

Highlights

The facade on the Herengracht

With its entrance topped by carved ornaments and its double flight of steps, the 18th-century facade reflects the French taste of the wealthy merchants of the Herengracht, the most prestigious canal in the ring. It is best photographed from the opposite bank.

The reception rooms on the main floor

Ballroom, dining room laid for dinner, gentlemen's parlour with blue-hung walls crowded with paintings, ladies' parlour: the reception rooms recreate the decor of the Willets' time, in the 1860s. A ceiling painted by Jacob de Wit, the master of 18th-century Amsterdam interior decoration, adorns one of the rooms.

The French-style garden

At the back, an 18th-century-style city garden, recreated in 1972, lines up its box parterres around gravel paths. You can admire it from the garden room, at the far end of the main floor.

The kitchen and life behind the scenes

In the basement, the kitchen and the pantry show the life of the servants who kept the house running. Upstairs, rooms trace the life of the Willet couple, and an exhibition devoted to a contemporary designer changes every six months.

Infos pratiques

Tips

Prices checked in October 2026: adults €15, students and CJP cardholders €7.50, free up to age 17; free entry with the Museumkaart and the I amsterdam City Card. As the Amsterdam Museum's main building on the Kalverstraat is closed for renovation, this house is one of the two venues where the museum welcomes visitors. The house has neither step-free access nor a lift. For comparison with another home preserved in its original state, continue to Museum Van Loon, on the Keizersgracht.

How to get there

Herengracht 605, 1017 CE Amsterdam, between the Rembrandtplein and the Amstel. Tram 4, Rembrandtplein stop, or tram 14, Waterlooplein stop. Metro 51, 53 and 54, Waterlooplein station (lift only at the Stopera exit).