All open air museums to visit in North Holland

Experience history come to life at open-air museums in North Holland. These museums feature historical buildings, reenactments, and interactive exhibits in an outdoor setting.

Are you interested in experiencing history firsthand? These are the best open air museums in North Holland:

  1. Zaanse Schans1

    Zaanse Schans

     Zaandam
    The Zaanse Schans is a neighborhood in Zaandam. Formally it is not a museum, but an outdoor attraction. It features old mills and houses. The Zaans Museum is located in the Zaanse Schans.
  2. Zuiderzee Museum2

    Zuiderzee Museum

     Enkhuizen
    The Zuiderzee Museum in Enkhuizen brings stories of the people who once lived on the shores of the Zuiderzee to life. Discover the everyday life round the Zuiderzee as it was before the Afsluitdijk (the great IJsselmeer Barrier Dam) turned the former inland sea into what we now know as the IJsselmee
  3. Muiderslot3

    Muiderslot

     Muiden
    The Muiderslot from 1285 is a medieval moated castle. It is a square castle with five towers, battlements, embrasures and a drawbridge. One of the inhabitants of the castle was the Dutch writer and poet Pieter Cornelis Hooft, who lived there in the seventeeth century. The visitor is taken back in ti
  4. Steamtrain Hoorn Medemblik4

    Steamtrain Hoorn Medemblik

     Hoorn
    The Steamtrain Hoorn Medemblik museum is dedicated to the steam train in the Netherlands. The museum uses the former freight and classification yard of that station of Hoorn. Steam trams drive from village to village on the railway between Hoorn and Medemblik from 1887. The collection consists of st
  5. Museum Kaap Skil5

    Museum Kaap Skil

     Oudeschild
    Museum Kaap Skil is housed in a modern glass building with a shell of wooden beams. The museum is dedicated to Texel and the sea. The collection includes beachcombing objects and dive finds, as well as paintings and prints. In addition, the museum has the largest maritime model in the world.
  6. Maritiem-en Juttersmuseum Flora6

    Maritiem-en Juttersmuseum Flora

     De Koog
    Maritime and Beachcomber Museum Flora is the largest beachcomber museum in the world. The museum displays old beachcomber finds and beachcombers talk about their experiences and wanderings on the beach. Various exhibits are on display and films are shown. For children there are scavenger hunts, vari
  7. Fort Kijkduin7

    Fort Kijkduin

     Den Helder
    Fort Kijkduin is a Napoleonic fort from 1811. It is part of the Defence Line of Den Helder. In the fort is a museum about the history of Den Helder, especially about the French and German times. There is also a unique North Sea aquarium on display, where children can feed and pet sharks and rays! Th
  8. Dutch Fortress Museum8

    Dutch Fortress Museum

     Naarden
    The Netherlands Fortress Museum is housed in ‘Bastion Turfpoort’. The museum is dedicated to the war history of the Netherlands. The visitor learns how the soldiers of the garrison guarded Holland, and specifically Amsterdam. The museum consists of an outdoor part and an underground part. The outdoo
  9. Bunker Museum IJmuiden9

    Bunker Museum IJmuiden

     IJmuiden
  10. Van Eesteren Museum10

    Van Eesteren Museum

     Amsterdam
    The Van Eesteren Museum is dedicated to Dutch architect and urban planner Cornelis van Eesteren.