Museums in Groningen: art, comics and science near the station

Planning a trip and looking for museums in Groningen? You will almost certainly start at the Groninger Museum. Its colourful building stands in the water opposite the central station, so you see it the moment you step off the train. The city has more to offer, though. In the Forum, a museum on the sixth floor is all about comics, animation and games. The university shows its heritage in the academic quarter of the city. Groningen is a student city, and you notice that in the curious tone of its museums.

The Groninger Museum gets noticed as much for its building as for its art, with a golden tower and a pavilion that seems to fall apart. It is known for large, often unconventional exhibitions. In the Forum you find Storyworld on the sixth floor, where you discover how comics, animation and games are made. The Universiteitsmuseum Groningen shows what centuries of research at the university have produced, including the nanomotor of chemist Ben Feringa. The nice part for a visitor: these three lie within a fifteen minute walk of each other, so you can see all of them without a bus or a bike.

The current building opened in 1994 and was led by the Italian designer Alessandro Mendini. Philippe Starck, Michele de Lucchi and Coop Himmelb(l)au each designed a pavilion, and the largest section of that last one was built at a shipyard and towed across the water. Inside, contemporary art, design, fashion and older paintings from the region take turns. Look out for De Ploeg, the local artists' society whose painters captured the northern landscape in strong colours. Children and young people up to 18 get in free, and the Museumkaart, the Dutch annual museum pass, is valid here.

Arrive by train and you are at the Groninger Museum within five minutes. Start there, then walk via the Herestraat to the Grote Markt. The Forum, with Storyworld on the sixth floor, stands on the Nieuwe Markt. Take the lift up to its roof terrace while you are there, because the view over the city is worth it. The Universiteitsmuseum lies near the Academiegebouw, the main university building, so you can end your walk there. Groningen is a cycling city. If you rent a bike for a second day, you can also reach the borgen in the province.

Borgen are the old manor houses of the Groningen countryside, and several of them are furnished as museums. The Menkemaborg in Uithuizen and the Fraeylemaborg in Slochteren both have a garden you can walk through after your visit to the rooms. In the far southeast of the province lies Museum Klooster Ter Apel, a monastery museum that makes a good stop if you are travelling on by car. These places are not in the list below, because that list covers the city only. You find them on the map.

Below is every museum in the city of Groningen, in alphabetical order. Museums elsewhere in the province, such as the borgen, are on the map.

• Groninger MuseumModern
• Storyworld (in Dutch)Art
• Universiteitsmuseum Groningen (in Dutch)Science