Artis Royal Zoo, Amsterdam

oldest zoo of the Netherlands, founded in 1838

Admire the diversity of plants and animals, or travel to the stars at the Planetarium

Artis Royal Zoo

Natura Artis Magistra*, commonly known simply as Artis, is a wonderful zoological garden in the centre of Amsterdam. It is one of the oldest zoos in Europe.

Artis was founded in 1838 and the garden includes 27 historic buildings.

In addition to the zoo, Artis also contains an aquarium, library and planetarium.

Artis is also a botanical garden, with plants and trees gathered from all over the world.

Aquarium

The Artis Aquarium (from 1882) is housed in a historic building, one of the many monuments at the Zoo. It brings you face to face with the secret life of Amsterdam's canals!

Planetarium

At the Artis Planetarium you will travel faster than the speed of light and passing by planets, moons, stars and entire galaxies.

* Latin for "Nature is the teacher of art"

Feeding times

The Artis zookeepers feed the animals at fixed hours, see schedule below.

11:00 am - European vultures
11:00 am - Butterflies
11:30 am - Sea lions
12:30 pm - Reptiles
01:45 pm - Lemurs island
02:00 pm - Butterflies
02:00 pm - Pelicans
02:50 pm - Carnivorans
03:30 pm - Penguins
03:45 pm - Sea lions

Sometimes the keepers share stories and information about the animals, which are called "keeper talks".

No more lions

Since 1839, 200 lions have lived in Artis and for the last 90 years they have lived on a terrace with a moat in front of it. That enclosure, built in 1927, was revolutionary at the time: to see a predator without bars in front of it. Due to financial reasons, they had to leave Artis in the beginning of 2021.