Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum stands on the Museumplein in Amsterdam, designed by the architect Pierre Cuypers in a richly decorated combination of Dutch Renaissance Revival and Gothic Revival styles and completed in 1885 as the national museum of the Netherlands. Its twin towers and elaborately patterned brick and stone facade, ornamented with sculpture, stained glass and decorative tilework referencing Dutch history and the arts, were controversial when new for their overtly Catholic-influenced style in a predominantly Protestant country. A major renovation completed in 2013 reopened the building's central cycling and pedestrian passageway, long closed off, and restored much of Cuypers' original decorative scheme, which had been painted over or altered in the twentieth century. The museum's Gallery of Honour culminates in Rembrandt's The Night Watch, displayed at the end of the sequence of galleries.