Dutch Open Air Museum: history in buildings and stories

According to the museum, the Dutch Open Air Museum in Arnhem covers about 44 hectares. The park contains around a hundred historic buildings, farmhouses and mills, which visitors can explore inside and out. Craftspeople also demonstrate work such as forging, printing and operating a mill.

The Canon of Dutch History is the indoor museum. Since 2017, the exhibition has taken visitors through fifty windows on events, people and objects from Dutch history. In the final gallery, an eighteen-metre-wide touchscreen lets them explore the entire Canon.

The museum points to the Zaan merchant’s house, where the story of the former owner’s slave plantation is told. The exhibition VOC-mentaliteit also includes work by Moluccan artist Dominique Latoel.

Uitgelicht is a separate autumn evening programme, running from 9 to 25 October 2026 after regular opening hours. According to the museum, the roughly two-kilometre walk passes gardens and buildings and takes about one to one and a half hours. Tickets are available online only. Evening admission costs €24.50 from age thirteen and €19 for children aged four to twelve; Museumkaart and some other cardholders pay €5.

The museum park’s summer season runs through 25 October. Until then it opens daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Hoeferlaan 4 in Arnhem. From 26 October to 4 December, the park opens as a walking park from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; historic buildings are closed and the tram does not run. The Canon remains accessible.

During the autumn school holiday, from 10 to 25 October, the museum lists daytime admission at €24 for visitors aged thirteen and over and €17.50 for children aged four to twelve. Children aged three and under and Museumkaart holders enter free. Online purchases receive a €1 discount per paid ticket, according to the museum. The Uitgelicht evening walk has separate tickets.

The museum says its car park has space for more than 750 cars; city bus 3 runs towards Burgers’ Zoo and the Open Air Museum.