The 5 best car museums in Europe: Nr. 3: the Louwman Museum, the Hague, the Netherlands

The Louwman Museum was on our wish list for a long time. Thanks to an active presence at Dutch, Belgian and German car shows, its reputation long preceded it. The Museum is also part of the Big Five museum cooperation, and they also send cars regularly to other museums. It certainly lived up to the expectorations.

The Museum is housed in n modern building designed with architectural-finesse, conceptual brilliance and an eye for detail. The strength of the Louwman Museum is the architectural presentation: the colours are effective, the lighting is functional, the rooms follow a precise choreography.

The Museum experience takes on a ride as if we were sitting on a cultural roller coaster. The discreet twilight quarters allow us to rest our mind until the next breath-taking extravaganza is coming. The Louwman follows a perfect choreography, and the layout somehow reminded to the Mercedes-Benz factory Museum. The main difference from the Stuttgart or Munich museums is that the Lowman traded the cool professional techno style with a warm and colourful ambient of an Art Gallery.

As far as content is concerned, the Louwman Museum hosts one of the World’s oldest and most comprehensive car collections (the detailed catalogue is available on their website). One small illustration of that is the bold claim to hold the most extensive collection of pre-1910 cars. Yet, the selection of vehicles is far from out of balance. In fact, it is one of the World’s most balanced collection in terms of geographic origin, era and category.

At Louwman, the term museum is taken very seriously: the vehicles of the earliest Epoque occupy an entire floor. This already a diverse selection, ranging from pedestrian-propelled litters and horse carriages to strange three-wheel mechanised vehicles. The timeline covers every decade, and each car is a landmark, a masterpiece or a vehicle that witnessed or made history.

There are line-ups of pre-war steam cars and electric vehicles, illustrating the alternatives of the early 20^th century. The Museum has an entire hall of microcars, while the lobby features dozens of oversized vehicles, like luxury mastodons of the roaring ‘20s or the personal Mercedes of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

American cars are well represented, and the Museum even features a few Japanese cars, like the World’s oldest surviving Toyoda (yes, with a “d”).

Noble sports cars, race cars of every major series, and an impressive selection of movie cars (all original, of course). As far as content can be concerned Louwman offers really everything.

At the end of the good half a day strenuous walk in the Museum, there was one big question left: could the Louwman take the top spot as the best car museum in the continent? The Louwman certainly is enormous and one of the most comprehensive and balanced exhibitions encompassing all ages and regions of the World. In general, the quality (layout, concept, the “script”) is comparable with the best factory museums.

The Louwman works like an art gallery with cars, and there lies the only major deficiency that will cost the title. The museum is about as interactive as a traditional art gallery.

For the next Museum on our list, you can scroll down or click the article below. It will be another factory museum, probably the best factory museum in the World…