Alternative Amsterdam Museums
A Brief Look at Amsterdam's Sex, Marijuana and Torture Museums
Apr 30, 2008
The Rijksmuseum might boast the largest collection of Rembrandt paintings in the world while the nearby Van Gogh and modern art Stedelijk museums are justly famed but, off the beaten track, the Netherlands' historic capital city is also home to a torture museum, a hash, hemp and marijuana museum and two sex museums.
Amsterdam's Sex Museums
Most visitors to Amsterdam will at some point pass down the Damrak, the partly filled in canal and broad thoroughfare linking Centraal Station and Dam Square. Located in the thick of the human traffic is the Sex Museum Amsterdam or Venustempel - an exhibition that is part scholarly (ancient fertility statues and lewd carvings) and part trashy theme park (jerkily animated mannequins of infamous Dutch courtesan Mata Hari and Marilyn Monroe). This mixture of educational and purely fun exhibits makes the museum one of the city's most successful and enjoyable attractions although, given the explicit nature of much of the material on display, it's one for the open-minded only.
Over in the Red Light District, meanwhile, is the somewhat smaller Erotic Museum, boasting a limited collection of erotic photographs and artwork (including a number of John Lennon lithographs), a mock-up of an Amsterdam prostitute's room complete with waxwork prostitute and a "fairytale corner" that would never have been sanctioned by Disney.
Amsterdam Hash, Hemp and Marijuana Museum
Also located in the heart of the Red Light District, the Hash, Marihuana & Hemp Museum has attracted over a million visitors since opening its doors in 1985. The pungent whiff of thriving marijuana plants from the indoor garden greets the visitor on entry. Elsewhere the history of cannabis is explored in an unsensational, fact-packed manner, detailing the use of hemp in the textile and paper manufacturing industries, the medicinal usage of marijuana through the ages and, of course, the plant's role as a recreational drug.
Amsterdam Torture Museum
Just across from the Bloemenmarkt, Amsterdam's famous floating flower market, is a far less pretty and fragrant proposition. Suitably dark and dingy, the Amsterdam Torture Museum sets out to document the history of human cruelty, mainly through a series of old prints but with several genuine torture devices dotted throughout the gloom. The guillotine takes pride of place (despite being an instrument of swift execution rather than torture) while the spiked Inquisition Chair, rack and "skullcracker" cap - all used by either the church or state - are guaranteed to raise goose bumps.
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