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Vincent van Gogh lived and worked here. Follow his footsteps at the Van Gogh Village Museum and around the village.
Route by public transport ↗City of light, design and art.
4 museumsEindhoven grew up on light bulbs. Where Philips once built its factories, designers, studios and museums have moved in. This is a city that prefers to look forward rather than back, and you notice it everywhere.
For museum visitors Eindhoven offers a surprising mix. The Van Abbemuseum is one of the leading museums of modern and contemporary art in the Netherlands. At the Philips Museum you stand in the factory where it all began, and the DAF Museum shows how Eindhoven built cars and lorries too. The centre is compact: from the station you reach the museums in a few minutes, and Strijp-S is a short bike ride away. Plan a museum in the morning and end the day among the old factories.
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Modern and contemporary art, from Picasso and Kandinsky to artists working today. The old brick building and the new tower by the river Dommel are worth the visit on their own.
In the first Philips factory you see how a lamp workshop grew into a global company. Many inventions are there to try for yourself.
A former Philips site full of studios, shops, places to eat and art. It shows how the city gives its industrial past a new life.
The story of Eindhoven's own lorry and car maker, with dozens of vehicles in a former brewery.
Two former Philips buildings in the centre. The Witte Dame now houses the Design Academy and the public library, while the Lichttoren is the symbol of the City of Light.
Pierre Cuypers' neo-Gothic church, with two towers in the middle of town. A quiet stop between the shopping streets.
Buy your tickets online and plan the rest of your day around them.
All museums in Eindhoven. Click a museum for the route.
In the middle of Eindhoven stands a tower with a glass top. Inside, Philips once checked whether its lamps could be trusted.
Philips grew at great speed in the early twentieth century. Every new lamp had to prove that it gave good light and lasted. So the company built a striking tower in the centre with test rooms for lamps. The Lichttoren became the calling card of the factory, and later of the whole city. When production moved away, the tower stayed as a reminder of the time when Eindhoven made the world's light bulbs. Eindhoven still calls itself the City of Light. Every November it celebrates that with the GLOW light festival.
Where: Lichttoren, central Eindhoven
Around Eindhoven are places where Van Gogh lived and cities with strong museums of their own. These three are easy to reach by public transport.
Vincent van Gogh lived and worked here. Follow his footsteps at the Van Gogh Village Museum and around the village.
Route by public transport ↗The city of Hieronymus Bosch, with St John's Cathedral and the Noordbrabants Museum.
Route by public transport ↗Contemporary art at De Pont, and weaving and design at the TextielMuseum.
Route by public transport ↗Travel times are indicative. Live times on 9292.nl ↗.
Eindhoven has hotels for every budget, from design hotels to simple rooms near the station. Trains take you quickly to Den Bosch or Tilburg, and buses run to villages such as Nuenen. Head out by day and come back to the city for dinner. You see a lot of Brabant from a single base.
Restaurants, shops and hotels near the museums, picked for museum visitors.