The university's teaching collection on the Lange Nieuwstraat, with a seventeenth-century physic garden behind it.
Four centuries of instruments, skeletons and preserved specimens assembled to teach with rather than to display, which gives the rooms a bluntness most museums have edited out. The real find is the garden: the Oude Hortus was laid out in 1723, is walled on all sides, and almost nobody walking the Lange Nieuwstraat knows it is there. Go on a dry day and treat the interior as the shorter half.
Highlights
- A walled 1723 physic garden
- Hands-on teaching collection
- Quiet even in summer
Insider tips
- →Not open Mondays; the yearly exceptions are New Year's Day and King's Day.
- →The garden is the reason to come, so this is a fair-weather choice.
FAQ
Do I need to book Universiteitsmuseum and the Oude Hortus ahead?
Is this a good first-time visitor choice?
Where you'll find it
Utrecht, Netherlands
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