★★★★★ 5.0
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Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum in Amsterdam
This museum is older than cannabis legalization in the Netherlands. Seriously! The Hash, Marihuana & Hemp Museum opened right here on Oudezijds Achterburgwal in 1985, fifteen years before brothels became legal just down the street, making it one of the world's first cannabis museums. Here's what most visitors miss... that unassuming brick facade you're looking at houses an original Piet Mondrian painting alongside 7,000 cannabis artifacts from across the globe. The building itself sits in De Wallen, where medieval sailors once sought hemp rope for their ships in the very same neighborhood where the museum now celebrates the plant's history. Inside, you'll walk past a living cannabis garden with five different strains growing right before your eyes, then discover a 1836 Dutch Bible actually printed on hemp paper. The Hemp Gallery upstairs contains David Teniers the Younger's 1660 masterpiece "Hemp-Smoking Peasants in a Smoke House" - painted when Amsterdam was the world's hemp trading capital. And yes, there's that famous vaporizer room where adults can legally sample what they're learning about. Over two million people have walked through these doors since opening, making this quirky Red Light District spot more popular than most major art museums. The real kicker? They even display one of cannabis smuggler Howard Marks' fake passports - because apparently Amsterdam's always had a sense of humor about these things.
Did You Know?
- The Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum in Amsterdam, founded in 1985 by Ben Dronkers and Ed Rosenthal, was the world’s first museum dedicated entirely to cannabis and hemp—a bold move that even led to its temporary closure on opening day in 1987 due to legal controversy, but the founders successfully challenged the decision in court, securing its place in cannabis cultural history.
- The museum’s Hemp Gallery displays rare Dutch Golden Age paintings by artists such as Mondriaan, David Teniers de Jongere, Adriaen Brouwer, Hendrick Sorgh, and Adriaen van Ostade, highlighting hemp’s role in 17th-century Dutch art and society—visitors can even see an original Mondriaan, a surprising artistic treasure tucked away in the heart of the Red Light District.
- Among its 7,000–9,000 artifacts, the museum features a live cannabis garden and a unique vaporizer room where adult visitors can experience different marijuana strains firsthand—an immersive feature that educates on cultivation and consumption while showcasing the plant’s botanical diversity, all within the museum’s historic canal-side building just steps from Dam Square.