Centraal Museum

Established in 1838, the Centraal Museum in Utrecht is the oldest municipal museum in the Netherlands, featuring a vast collection from ancient to modern art, design, fashion, and city history.

Planning your visit

The Centraal Museum is the oldest municipal museum in the Netherlands, founded in 1838, and its collection reflects Utrecht specifically — a city that was the religious capital of the country before Amsterdam's commercial rise.

The strongest holding is the Utrecht Caravaggisti, painters who travelled to Rome in the early seventeenth century, absorbed Caravaggio's dramatic lighting, and brought it back north where it influenced Rembrandt and Vermeer. Hendrick ter Brugghen and Gerard van Honthorst are the names.

The museum also holds the world's largest Gerrit Rietveld collection, and it manages the Rietveld Schroder House across the city — a 1924 De Stijl building that is UNESCO-listed and among the most important houses of the twentieth century, visited separately by timed tour.

A twelfth-century Utrecht boat excavated from the ground, fashion, design and city history complete it.

Bookable options are entrance tickets. Current availability is listed below.