Louwman Museum

When going by the suburbs of Den Haag, you’ll likely come across a large church-like building situated inside of a large park with the words ‘Louwman Museum’ on top. Welcome to the Netherland’s car museum. 

Louwman is not just any car museum, it is one of the world’s largest private collections of cars. It has been in the Louwman family for two generations, started by the father of the current owner. The family attained their fame and fortune by becoming the exclusive importers of Dodge cars in the Netherlands and in more recent years by making a similar deal with Lexus, Toyota, and Suzuki. 

The car collection was started in 1934 by Pieter Louwman, who bought a then 20-year-old Dodge, something that was seen as a strange move at the time. However, the gimmick became a passion and the collection quickly grew in size.

Currently, the collection consists of over 230 cars, carriages, and motorbikes. Amongst which a De Dion-Bouton et Trépardoux from 1887, (one of the oldest remaining cars in existence), Churchils Humber, one of Kaizer Wilhelm II’s Mercedes-Benz, the car that was used by James Bond in Goldfinger and even Elvis’ car!