Volendams Museum
Photo: Own work — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover Volendam’s past through authentic costumes, interiors, and art. Highlights include the cigar band mosaics and exhibits on the artists’ colony.
Planning your visit
Volendam's costume is one of the most photographed in the world — the winged lace cap, the striped skirt, the men's baggy trousers — and it became so because artists made it famous. From the 1880s the Hotel Spaander drew painters from across Europe and America who stayed, painted the fishing community, and often paid in canvases; Picasso and Renoir are among those said to have passed through.
The museum covers that, along with the working reality behind the picturesque: the Zuiderzee fishery that sustained the village until the Afsluitdijk closed the sea in 1932 and destroyed it, the Catholic identity that set Volendam apart from its Protestant neighbours, and the domestic interiors.
The cigar band room is the oddity worth the ticket: mosaics made from eleven million bands, built over years by one man.
Allow an hour. Current availability is shown below.
Before you book
Where is Volendams Museum?
Volendams Museum is in Volendam, Netherlands. The map on this page marks its exact location.
How long should I allow for Volendams Museum?
Allow an hour. That is the time the collection itself takes at an unhurried pace, before any queue.
Do I need to book Volendams Museum in advance?
Tickets can be bought on the door at quiet times, but booking ahead fixes the date and avoids the queue at busy ones. Live availability is shown on this page.