Madame Tussauds is a famous wax figure museum, set up by wax sculptor Marie Tussaud, which is exhibited in many major cities.

The Madame Tussauds in Amsterdam is very interactive and different. You can get face to face with your favourite celebrities, shop ’til you drop with superstar Jennifer Lopez, test your soccer skills against Ronaldinho or have your picture taken with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie!

You also have the opportunity to meet Captain Jack Sparrow and have his cursed pirates scare the life out of you! ; )

Madame Tussauds is constantly developing and wants to bring a truly ground-breaking and contemporary experience to the customer, from immersive themed entertainments to imaginative use of state-of-the-art technology.

The was figure museum is located at the Dam Square in the heart of Amsterdam, approximately a five minute walk from Central Station and easy to reach by taking the tram.

Opening hours

Daily open from 10:00am to 5:30pm

History

In 1761 Marie Grosholz, later known as Madame Tussaud, is born in Strasbourg. Marie’s mother’s employer, a doctor called Philippe Curtius, opens an exhibition of life-size wax figures at the Palais Royale in Paris. Marie learns the art of wax modelling from him.

In 1777 Marie models the famous author and philosopher, Francois-Marie Arouet Voltaire and 3 years later she becomes art tutor to King Louis XVI’s sister and goes to live at the royal court in Versailles.

Marie returns to Paris, later helping Curtius to mould the heads of some of the guillotine’s victims – among them her Versailles acquaintances. In 1794 Marie Grosholz inherits Curtius’s collection of figures. One year later she marries François Tussaud, an engineer, but leaves him eight years later to bring the collection on a tour of the British Isles.

For the next 33 years, she lives the exhausting and precarious life of a travelling showman, moving from town to town with her caravans, organising advertising, and encouraging newspaper anecdotes, or organising charity benefits to bring in useful patrons.

She suffers shipwreck in the Irish Sea, and fire during the Bristol Riots of 1823. Yet, throughout the travelling years, new figures are constantly introduced.

In 1850 Madame Tussaud dies. In her old age, supported by two sons, she had achieved great success. She had been immortalised by Dickens (as Mrs Jarley) and caricatured by Cruikshank.