Kattenkabinet, Amsterdam

The Kattenkabinet is an art museum devoted entirely to pictures and sculptures of cats, housed in this canalside building on Herengracht. Its collection brings together paintings, drawings, sculptures and other cat-themed works by artists including Picasso, Rembrandt, Toulouse-Lautrec, Corneille, Sal Meijer, Théophile Steinlen, Ed van der Elsken and Jože Ciuha. The building and its adjoining house were constructed in 1667 for the brothers Willem and Adriaen van Loon.

Look at the entrance and the canal-facing façade as you imagine this long domestic history: the house later belonged to Amsterdam mayor Jan Calkoen and pensionary Engelbert van Berckel, who received a visit here from John Adams. Bob Meijer created the museum in 1990 to commemorate his red tomcat, John Pierpont Morgan. A few living cats are part of the museum too.