Residential area in Amsterdam. Amsterdam, Holland. Copyright © LukeTravels.com™

	The Rijksmuseum building detail. When the Rijksmuseum was opened to the public for the first time in 1800 as the Nationale Konstgallerij (National Art Gallery), it was housed in the Huis ten Bosch in The Hague and the collection consisted primarily of paintings. In 1808 it moved to Amsterdam, where it was to be seen first in the Palace on Dam Square and later in the Trippenhuis on Kloveniersburgwal. The present building came into use in 1885. At that point the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst (Netherlands Museum for History and Art), formerly in The Hague, was added to the Rijksmuseum, forming the basis for the collections of Dutch History and Sculpture and Applied Art.  Amsterdam, Holland. Photo Copyright © LukeTravels.com™

	The Rijksmuseum grounds. On 19 November 1798 Jan Alexander Gogel decided that the Netherlands should have a national museum on the French model. The remains of the collections amassed by the stadholders were brought together in eight rooms in the west wing of the palace of Huis ten Bosch. Under the collection's first director, Cornelis Roos, the rooms were filled with 200 paintings and on 31 May 1800 the Nationale Konst-Gallerij opened its doors to the public. Three years later, the first purchase was made, 95 guilders being paid for Jan Asselijn's Threatened Swan, still one of the highlights of the Rijksmuseum collection. Amsterdam, Holland. Photo Copyright © LukeTravels.com™