Museums in Groningen

The art and design museum of Groningen, opened in 1874 and housed since 1994 in a building designed by Alessandro Mendini with contributions from Michele De Lucchi, Philippe Starck, and Coop Himmelb(l)au that is itself one of the highlights of postmodern architecture in the Netherlands. The canal island position, the eccentric gold and silver towers, and the vivid colour palette make the exterior one of the most distinctive building silhouettes in any Dutch city. Inside, the collection spans four diverse areas: the history of Groningen including unique portraits and silverware, applied art and design, photography and fashion, and contemporary and modern art. The De Ploeg collection, works by the Groningen expressionist group active from 1918, is a particular strength alongside Old Masters and The Hague School paintings. International temporary exhibitions rotate throughout the year and have drawn visitors from beyond the region. Open Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm. Museumkaart accepted.

The cultural heart of Groningen, opened in 2019 on the Nieuwe Markt: a ten-storey building housing a public library, two exhibition spaces, a cinema, study rooms, cafes, and the NOK bar-restaurant on its tenth floor with panoramic views over the city. The building itself, with its zigzagging escalators climbing through a vast atrium, is worth visiting purely as architecture, and the rooftop viewing platform is free and offers one of the best views in the north of the Netherlands. Two large exhibition spaces host rotating international and local exhibitions on popular culture, technology, and current affairs. The Google rating of 5/5 from nearly 6,000 visitors reflects how thoroughly the city has embraced it as a meeting place. Open seven days a week from 10am to 11pm. For the NOK restaurant on the 10th floor see the restaurants guide.

A science museum in the academic heart of Groningen, open since 1934, housing one of the most unexpectedly remarkable collections in the Netherlands: the world’s first electric car, built in Groningen in 1835 by Sibrandus Stratingh and Christopher Becker; the first Dutch satellite; an anatomy room with a preserved cross-section of a human body; and an extensive display on the history of the University of Groningen and seven famous professors from the institution including Aletta Jacobs, the first woman to study medicine in the Netherlands. The majestic upstairs hall is as impressive architecturally as much of what is displayed inside it. Free to enter, open Tuesday to Sunday 11am to 5pm (Tuesday to Saturday per RUG website). Located on the same street as several of the best cafes in Groningen, including Black and Bloom and Koffiestation Books and Coffee, making it a natural pairing for a morning visit. See the cafes guide for details.

The Northern Maritime Museum, housed in a pair of historic sixteenth-century canal houses on the Brugstraat in the oldest part of the city, documenting the maritime history of the northern Netherlands from the earliest trade routes through the peat colonies of Drenthe to the twentieth-century fishing industry and inland shipping traditions that shaped the landscape. The collection includes ship models, navigational instruments, cargo records, portraits of merchants and captains, and a particularly strong section on the peat barge culture of the Groningen and Drenthe waterways. One of the most visited museums in the province and consistently praised for the quality of its restoration of the historic building as much as the collection inside. Museumkaart accepted.

The 97-metre tower of the Martinikerk, known to locals as d’Olle Grieze (the Old Grey One) for its Bentheim sandstone exterior, is the defining landmark of Groningen and the most important Gothic structure in the north of the Netherlands. The tower can be climbed via 260 steps to an observation platform with a panoramic view of the flat Groningen countryside, the Drenthe moors, and on clear days the Wadden Sea coastline. The Martinikerk attached to the tower holds medieval frescoes and a remarkably intact historic interior. Together they form the single most significant cultural monument in the city. The carillon plays from the tower on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at noon. For the broader Grote Markt and surrounding attractions see the attractions guide.

A restored sixteenth-century Renaissance garden behind the Hotel Prinsenhof on the Martinikerkhof, laid out in formal box hedges, herb beds, and espalier fruit trees in a design that reflects the horticultural knowledge of the period. One of the oldest surviving gardens in the Netherlands, used by the Princes of Groningen before the city came under Dutch Republic control in 1594. The garden is free to enter and open to the public during daylight hours. Small, quiet, and thoroughly unexpected in the middle of a city centre, it offers a genuinely restful few minutes away from the streets and works well as a stop between the Martinikerk and the Feithhuis restaurant immediately adjacent. Rarely crowded even during busy periods in the city.