Teylers Museum

Teylers opened its doors in 1784 and is now known as the oldest museum in the Netherlands with a collection that is unique in the world. Here, art and science were stimulated and the earth and life were mapped. Since its opening, it has been a place to marvel and wonder at ancient fossils, magnificent stones, ingenious devices, precious books, fascinating coins and medals, fabulous drawings and romantic paintings.

Nowhere else in the world will you find such an authentic 18th-century museum as here. The interior alone, with the monumental Oval Room as its showpiece, is a sight of the first order. In the Pieter Teylers Huis, former residence of Pieter Teyler (1702-1778), you will discover more about the museum’s founder. Some rooms in this unique national monument are among the best-preserved historical interiors in the Netherlands from the 18th century. The modern wing hosts ever-changing exhibitions. Sometimes about art, sometimes about science. In the old laboratory of Nobel laureate Lorentz, opened in 2017, you step into the footsteps of Professor Einstein and Lorentz and see Teyler’s masterpiece, the Great Electrifying Machine, come to life.