The adventure of the Hermitage Amsterdam is coming to the apotheosis. Phase 1 was opened in February of 2004 in the building Neerlandia, located on the Nieuwe Herengracht in Amsterdam. Since opening her doors the Hermitage Amsterdam, more than 400.000 visitors have seen the 6 exhibitions. In the spring of 2009 the Hermitage Amsterdam will open the final phase in one of the most beautiful buildings along the Amstel. In the monumental 17th century Amstelhof exhibitions will be held, composed of the rich collections of the Hermitage St. Petersburg and other Russian museums. The Hermitage Amsterdam is a unique asset for the rich cultural life of Amsterdam and a increase in the offer of Dutch museums.

In the early 1990s Professor Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg was considering the possibility of having satellites of the museum in the West. The Nieuwe Kerk and the Hermitage had already established a strong relationship through the organisation of major exhibitions, and Ernst Veen, director of the Nieuwe Kerk, suggested that Amsterdam would be the ideal location for a branch

of the Russian museum, given the historical links between the two cities over the past 300 years.

At the same time the Nursing-home Amstelhof Foundation decided that the building no longer met modern nursing standards. The Foundation United Amstel Houses (an umbrella organisation of 23 institutions in the Amsterdam region) which Amstelhof is part of decided to build new nursing homes and to make the Amstelhof available exclusively for cultural purposes.

In 1988 Ernst Veen was awarded a prize for economic development in

Amsterdam, the IJ Prize, and the money that came with it was used to fund a feasibility study for a Hermitage branch in Amsterdam.

The results of this study proved favourable so the Stichting Hermitage aan de Amstel was founded. Because of the future destination of the Amstelhof as Hermitage Amsterdam museum (expected to be completed in 2007) the Reformed Congregation transferred the property to the City of Amsterdam in 1999.

Phase I
In 2000, part of the Amstelhof complex, the Neerlandia building on the Nieuwe Herengracht, was declared no longer suitable as a nursing home and offered to the Hermitage Amsterdam. The decision was made to commence the first phase of the Hermitage Amsterdam in this part of the building with minor exhibitions and a small-scale educational programme in late February 2004. Exhibitions and education are the two mainstays of the museum.

Phase II
The Amstelhof is unique in that it served as a nursing home for the elderly and others in need for 324 consecutive years since its inception.

The residents and staff have now been moved to two newly built locations, Berkenstede in Diemen, and other facilities in Amsterdam belonging to the umbrella care organisation Cordaan, which is the successor of Verenigde Amstelhuizen. In the new residential, care and

service centres, residents have their own apartment and every modern convenience. Here, in line with the Cordaan vision, residents have the ability to live as independently as possible, while receiving help where necessary.

The parish, which has been in existence for 324 years, retains the four buildings east of the Hermitage Amsterdam: the head office is housed in the Corvershof, the social functions in Amstelrank and Hodshonshuis, and the church centre in the Van Limmikhof.

By early 2009, Hans van Heeswijk architects together with interior designers Merkx + Girod and landscape architect Michael van Gessel will have transformed the historical building Amstelhof into a modern museum, namely: the Hermitage Amsterdam.