The street organs
Huge colourful Dutch organs played before you.
bertknot from scarborough, australia — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Victor van Werkhooven — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Kris Roderburg / Chris Booms — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Kris Roderburg / Chris Booms — CC BY-SA 4.0
Museum Speelklok is Utrecht's most enjoyable family museum: the museum of self-playing musical instruments — from small music boxes and singing clocks to huge colourful Dutch street organs, player pianos and giant dance organs. In an old church, it shows centuries of the genius of "music without a musician". The secret of its fun is that it is not a silent museum: the tour is guided and the instruments are played before you — you hear the street organ play, the clocks sing and the automaton dolls move, so the museum is a live concert moving through its halls. Children dance to the giant organs' tunes, and adults marvel at the mechanical engineering before the age of electricity. In the heart of the old town on the canal — an outstanding family destination for all ages, and one of the Netherlands' most fun and authentic museums.
Huge colourful Dutch organs played before you.
Music boxes and clocks singing with delicate automaton birds.
Moving figures that play and dance — engineering before electricity.
Steenweg 6, 3511 Utrecht
The Buurkerk and its towerUtrecht's oldest parish church, its origins going back to the eleventh century, 1 minute walk4.3
Castellum TraiectumMarkers set into the paving of Utrecht's Domplein tracing the outline of the Rom2 minutes walk4.1
DOMunderDOMunder is an archaeological experience beneath Domplein itself: you descend un2 minutes walk4.2
Resistance MonumentA monument to the resistance against Nazi occupation in Utrecht, standing near t3 minutes walk4.6
Dom TowerThe Dom Tower is the tallest church tower in the Netherlands (112 metres) and Ut3 minutes walk4.4Honestly for everyone: children dance and interact, adults marvel at the mechanical precision and the beauty of the historic instruments. The live playing tour makes it an experience, not a silent museum — one of the Netherlands' most loved museums across ages. A delightful ninety minutes.