A small Dutch museum where the sea, history and a wartime bunker come together.
Key Takeaways
What this place offers.
MuzeeAquarium is a museum and sea aquarium in Delfzijl, in the north of the Netherlands.
It tells the story of about fifty centuries of life by the water and shows animals from the Wadden Sea and the North Sea.
It sits inside and around a real World War Two bunker, which now holds bright tanks with fish, crabs and other sea animals.
It is open every day in 2025 and is a simple, friendly visit for families, school groups and curious travellers.
Story & Details
A museum born from many collections.
MuzeeAquarium grew from an older museum about overseas trade that started in Delfzijl in the nineteen-thirties. Over the years people added shells, rocks, fossils, ship models and strange objects from faraway places. These collections became the heart of the present museum. Today visitors walk past cases filled with colourful shells, shiny minerals and old tools from ships and fishing boats. In one room a very old stone grave, the most northern “hunebed” of the country, shows how people already lived in this area thousands of years ago.
Inside the bunker by the sea.
The sea aquarium is in a thick concrete bunker that was built during World War Two as part of the coastal defence. The walls are about a metre thick and keep a steady climate for the tanks. Long corridors now hold clear windows onto life under the water. Sharks, rays, bright wrasses, lobsters and many smaller fish swim in salty water from the Wadden Sea and the North Sea. Simple signs explain where each animal lives and how it survives the moving tides. Children press their faces to the glass, while adults often stop to read about fishing, storms and shipwrecks along this coast.
A day out in 2025.
In late November 2025 the museum is open every day from 10:00 to 17:00 local time in Delfzijl, which is the same time as in the rest of the Netherlands. That makes it easy to add to a trip along the dike or to nearby beaches. The visit is not very long or tiring; many people spend about two hours looking around. There are small play areas and hands-on parts where children can touch models, turn wheels or lift flaps. For older visitors there are calm corners with photos, books and films about the history of Delfzijl and the long link between the town and the sea. The mix of quiet museum rooms and moving sea animals gives the place a relaxed mood, even when it is busy.
Conclusions
A gentle place where land meets water.
MuzeeAquarium Delfzijl is a modest museum, but it brings together many strong stories. It shows how people have lived beside the sea for thousands of years and how that sea still shapes daily life in a small Dutch port town. The bunker, the fish and the rows of shells all point to the same idea: life at the edge of land and water is fragile, active and always changing. For visitors in 2025 who want a simple, calm outing with real local colour, this small museum by the dike offers a clear view into that world.
Selected References
Where the facts come from.
- [1] MuzeeAquarium, official English home page: description of the museum, its themes and its shell and sea-life collections. https://www.muzeeaquarium.nl/home-english
- [2] MuzeeAquarium, opening hours and ticket prices: daily opening from 10:00 to 17:00 and current admission fees. https://www.muzeeaquarium.nl/openingstijden-prijzen
- [3] MuseumTV, short video “De collectie van MuzeeAquarium Delfzijl” on the MuseumTV channel, showing the main rooms and tanks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Llwt8tfYTcE
- [4] Visit Groningen, “Museum Aquarium”: regional tourism page about MuzeeAquarium and its mix of natural-history, cultural-history and sea-life displays. https://www.visitgroningen.nl/en/locations/1755155148/museum-aquarium
- [5] Visit Wadden, “Het MuzeeAquarium”: background on the museum’s roots in a nineteen-thirties overseas trade museum and its present-day “rarities cabinet”. https://www.visitwadden.nl/en/visit/activities/overview/789436179/het-muzeeaquarium
- [6] WhichMuseum, “Muzeeaquarium Delfzijl”: short English summary of exhibitions, the World War Two bunker and the animals from the North Sea and Wadden Sea. https://whichmuseum.com/museum/muzeeaquarium-delfzijl-27
Appendix
Delfzijl. A small port town in the province of Groningen in the north of the Netherlands, next to the sea dike and close to wide, flat beaches.
Hunebed. A very old stone grave made from large boulders, built by early farmers thousands of years ago and found in only a few places in the north of the Netherlands.
MuzeeAquarium. A combined museum and sea aquarium in Delfzijl that shows shells, rocks, fossils, ship models, local history objects and live sea animals from nearby waters.
MuseumTV. A Dutch video platform and media channel that makes short films about museums and exhibitions and shares them online for a wide public.
North Sea. A large shallow sea to the north of the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and other countries, important for shipping, fishing and strong winds and tides.
Wadden Sea. A chain of shallow coastal waters with mudflats and islands along the north of the Netherlands and parts of Germany and Denmark, rich in birds and sea life and protected as a natural area.
World War Two bunker. A heavy concrete military shelter built during the Second World War; at MuzeeAquarium one of these bunkers has been reused to hold sea-water tanks and museum corridors.
My Diary - Leonardo Cardillo 