Automobile Museum of Lovemann

Add a review about the Louvemann Automobile Museum

The Louvemann Automobile Museum is not as famous as other retro-car museums in Europe, but the collection is very, very worthy of inspection - even if you are not an obsessed motorist . Collection, which today consists of 240 s superfluous cars, began to collect in 1934 g . Peter Lovemann, the father of the current owner of the museum . The first machine in it was the 20-year-old "Dodge" . In 1969 the . collection expanded at the expense of the collection of Gerlig Rimer, the founder Automobile Institute in Driybergen . In the same year the muses she moved to Leidschendam, in a specially constructed building for him . Since then, he once again moved and in the current format was solemnly opened to the public in 2010 . by Queen Beatrix .

In a three-story museum building, designed American architect, there are more than 10 thousand square meters. m of exhibition space. Around the landscape park, and in front of the gate are massive sculpted lions. The main hall at the entrance to the museum also pays attention to architecture rather than to cars.

Unlike many retro-auto museums, which occupy any building, in the Louvemann Museum, much attention is paid to the exterior and interior decoration of the building. In particular, the walls contain many paintings and drawings by Frederick Gordon Crosby, an English auto-illustrator who worked all his life on the Avtokar magazine in the first half of the 20th century.

The sculptures of lions appeared in front of the museum in a random way. Jan Loewmann, the brother of the current owner, Evert, owned the old Zoo Wassenaar, which was closed in 1985. The lion's gate was inherited by the museum.

The collection of the museum consists of exhibits from around the world, and up to 1910 it was the largest in the country. Today, Holland does not belong to the leaders of the car industry, but at the time the country produced passenger cars, and these old models can also be seen here. This is, for example, 15 classic "Spikers", the only surviving "Eisink" and DAF 600 in 1957 - the first in the history with stepless transmission.

The oldest models in the collection are, for example, Peugeot 1895, the amazing Daimler bus in 1904, the American Stanley ET on the steam engine in 1906, the unique Dutch auto-steamer Bickers in 1907, the charming German HanoMag 2/10 of 1926, the British Humbers, the Cyclones "And" Templins "of the 1910s-20s. and even the hilarious "flying bench" "Briggs-Stratton Flyer" 1920 - the cheapest car for that time. Also here you can see the first "Doji" and "Packard" of the beginning of the Millennium.

In the collection of machines from the period of the Second World War and postwar models one can see the car of Winston Churchill and "Aston Martin DB5", which was shot in the Goldfinger Gold Bond series . Other famous exhibits of this period - "Jaguar HK120" 1952 ., elegant for his time "Lancia-Astur" 1938 ., rare German beetle "Steir-Baby" 1939 ., colorful taxi "Desoto-Castom" 1946 ., "Mercedes-Nuremburg 500" 1938 . Later interesting models are, for example, Rari the most intimate "Edsel-Pacer" 1958 . (the car of this brand was issued only 3 years) and the German auto amphibia "Amficar" 1967 g .

The exposition includes not only the retro car. So, here you can see the sparkling colors of the streamlined "Lincoln-Sedan-Deliveri" and the American electric car "Corbin-Sparrow", similar to the space capsule, 2000.

Especially interesting is the exhibition of electric cars, which in their time were lost by petrol ICE, and today they are quietly winning position. In the museum's electric collection there is the Hedag 1923, the Detroit Electric, in 1912, the Peugeot VLV in 1941 and one of the first vehicles of the hybrid type engine Owen Magnetic 1916

A small bonus for those who are bored with museum halls: at the end of the exposition they are waiting for a cafe, very nicely decorated, like the streets of a Dutch city a century ago.