The house was built for Jacob Hop, mayor of Amsterdam, around 1685. In 1739 the outside was redesigned to look as it does today, in the highly fashionable Louis XIV style. The last private owner bequeathed the house to the city of Amsterdam on condition that it became a museum in 1895. Three floors are open to the public, the souterrain, with the kitchen and garden (restored in 1972), the first floor (bel-etage with long hallway), and the top floor, with one bedroom on display and rooms for exhibitions.
 

Hermitage Amsterdam is the biggest satellite museum of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. It is located in a beautiful building, ‘Amstelhof', along the Amstel River. The bountiful collection of well over three million objects in the parent museum guarantee fabulous exhibitions with amazing works of art. The main exhibition is temporary and changes every 6 months but also has two permanent presentations. One illustrates the relationship between Russia and the Netherlands, the other focuses on the history of the building Amstelhof.
 

The largest collection of Van Gogh paintings in the world can be found here, along with the works of his contemporaries. In addition to seeing the exhibits first-hand, students can also understand the artistic context in which they were produced and the influence they exerted upon others.