News of: Friday, January 05 2007,
The Scheepvaartmuseum (Maritime Museum) in Amsterdam will close on Sunday, for a major renovation lasting 2.5 years.
The building needs to be prepared for the increasing number of visitors it receives.
The inner court of the 350 year old building will be covered by a glass roof construction, so that more use can be made of the square in the building.
The building is one of the biggest 17th century buildings in Amsterdam, and was built as a storage place for the Dutch merchant fleet. Later it became a storage facility for the navy, and only in 1974 it became the museum it now is.
During the renovation, the VOC ship 'Amsterdam' will remain open to the public. It will, however, be towed to the NEMO science centre, which is the big green building that you can see from the Central Station. This building is almost 'next door' to the Maritime Museum.
There it will be open again as of 17 February 2007.
On Sunday January 7 there will be free access to the museum. At 5pm the museum will be symbolically closed by the mayor, Job Cohen.
