One of the most important museums in the Dutch capital is certainly the Hermitage in Amsterdam. Born as an annex to the famous Russian museum in St. Petersburg, it houses an important collection and several internationally renowned exhibitions have been organized in its rooms.

As a result of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as of March 2022 the museum management has terminated cooperation with Russia and therefore with the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. The Amsterdam museum has managed to remain open to the public thanks to the support it received from other Dutch museum institutions and the Association of Museums.

The Hermitage in Amsterdam is located in an elegant building on the Amstel. It was built in 1681 by the Diaconia of Amsterdam thanks to the donation made by the merchant Barent Helleman upon his death. With the large sum of 90,000 florins it was possible to build a splendid structure which at the time was intended as a hospice for four hundred single and elderly women, called Öude Vrouwen Huis and renamed Amstelhof. The architect who designed the complex was Hans Jansz who gave shape to a classical-style structure with a facade over 100 meters long. The building maintained this function for over three centuries until it was sold to the municipality of Amsterdam in 1999. The last residents left in 2007. The then director of the De Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam suggested that the whole complex be allocated to a museum collection. In 2007 the renovation works began, followed by the architect Hans van Heeswijk, by Merkx+Girod for the interiors, and for the garden Michael van Gessel. At the end of the works, the Hermitage in Amsterdam was opened here, as an annex to the famous Russian museum in St. Petersburg. The museum was inaugurated on 19 June 2007 by Queen Beatrix and the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and was then made accessible to the public the following day with the famous exhibition Ät the Russian court". Within a little over a year the museum was visited by over a million visitors.