The Sexmuseum or the Temple of Venus (
Dutch
Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
** Dutch people as an ethnic group ()
** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship ()
** Dutch language ()
* In specific terms, i ...
: ''Venustempel'') is a
sex museum
Sex Museum is a Spanish rock band from Madrid, formed in 1985.
Band history
Originally the band began among the mod scene of Madrid playing rock music. Their first published material is highly influenced by a plethora of genres, for instance ...
located in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
,
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
. The museum was opened in 1985. It had 675,000 visitors in 2015, making it one of the
most visited museums in the Netherlands.
Background
The museum is the world's first and oldest museum of sex, however since, a number of other sex museum's have opened, such as those in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
(
Beate Uhse Erotic Museum), Paris (
Museum of Eroticism Museum of Eroticism (French: Musée de l'érotisme) was a sex museum in Paris devoted to the erotic art collections of antique dealer Alain Plumey and French teacher Jo Khalifa. It opened on 8 November 1997, and closed its doors on November 7, 2016. ...
), and Copenhagen (
Museum Erotica).
Prior to this, sex themed collections existed in larger museums, such as the
British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
, although these were not accessible to the public.
The museum is located in a 17th century building in
Damrak
The Damrak is an avenue and partially filled in canal at the centre of Amsterdam, Netherlands, running between Amsterdam Centraal in the north and Dam Square in the south. It is the main street where people arriving at the station enter the cent ...
, a street in the centre of Amsterdam, close the
Amsterdam Centraal
Amsterdam Centraal station ( ; abbreviation: Asd) is the largest railway station in Amsterdam, North Holland, the Netherlands. A major international railway hub, it is used by 192,000 passengers a day, making it the second busiest railway stati ...
station.
The museum's various rooms are named after famous figures, such as
Mata Hari
Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod (, ; 7 August 187615 October 1917), better known by the stage name Mata Hari ( , ; , ), was a Dutch Stripper, exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for German Empire, Germany during World War ...
,
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...
,
Marquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade ( ; ; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814) was a French writer, libertine, political activist and nobleman best known for his libertine novels and imprisonment for sex crimes, blasphemy and pornography ...
,
Rudolf Valentino
Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguella (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor who starred in several well-known sile ...
, and
Marquise de Pompadour
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (, ; 29 December 1721 – 15 April 1764), commonly known as Madame de Pompadour, was a member of the French Royal court, court. She was the official maîtresse-en-titre, chief mistress of King Lou ...
.
Children under 16 are not permitted to enter the museum.
The museum features an extensive collection of pictures, recordings, photos, paintings and artifacts which allow visitors to explore the evolution of human sexuality throughout the ages. Exhibits present the history of sex and how it has evolved over the centuries. From
Cleopatra
Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...
's regiment of men, to the Romans’ insatiable appetite for sex, to the repressive Middle Ages, visitors are presented with how sex was viewed throughout historical civilizations.
See also
*
List of sex museums
References
External links
Sexmuseum Amsterdam official website
*
{{Authority control
1985 establishments in the Netherlands
Museums established in 1985
Museums in Amsterdam
Sex museums
20th-century architecture in the Netherlands