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THE HAGUE |
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With its urbane atmosphere, THE HAGUE ( Den Haag ) is different from
any other Dutch city. Since the sixteenth century it's been the
Netherlands' political capital and the focus of national institutions,
and its older buildings are a rather subdued collection with little of
Amsterdam's flamboyance. Diplomats and delegates from multinational
businesses ensure that many of the city's hotels and restaurants are
firmly in the expense-account category, and the nightlife is similarly
packaged. But, away from this mediocrity, The Hague does have cheaper
and livelier bars and restaurants, as well as some excellent museums.
Right in the centre, the Binnenhof is the home of the Dutch parliament.
Count William II built a castle here in the thirteenth century, and the
settlement that grew up around it became known as the "Count's Domain",
or 's Gravenhage - which served as the city's official name right up
until the 1990s. The present complex is a rather mundane affair, the
small Hof Vijver lake mirroring the symmetry of the facade; inside
there's little to see except the Ridderzaal , a slender-turreted
structure used for state occasions that can be viewed on regular guided
tours from the information office at Binnenhof 8a (Mon-Sat 10am-3.45pm;
¬3.40). Immediately east, the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis , Korte
Vijverberg 8 (Tues-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 11am-5pm; ¬6.80; www.mauritshuis.nl
), located in a magnificent seventeenth-century mansion, is of more
interest, famous for its extensive range of Flemish and Dutch paintings
from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries. Early works include
paintings by Memling, Rogier van der Weyden and the Antwerp master,
Quentin Matsys; there's also a number of Adriaen Brouwer's
characteristically ribald canvases, work by Rubens, including a
typically grand Portrait of Isabella Brant , his first wife, and the
intriguing Adam and Eve in Paradise - a collaboration between Rubens,
who painted the figures, and Jan Bruegel the Elder, who filled in the
animals and landscape. In the same room are two examples of the work of
Rubens' assistant, Van Dyck. There are also numerous works by Jan Steen,
and several by Rembrandt, most notably the Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp
from 1632, the artist's first commission in Amsterdam. West of the
Binnenhof, the Gevangenpoort , Buitenhof 33, with its Prisoner's Gate
Museum (Tues-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat & Sun noon-5pm; last tour 4pm; ¬3.60;
www.gevangenpoort.nl ), was originally part of the city fortifications.
Used as a prison until the nineteenth century, it now contains an array
of guillotine blades, racks and gibbets, with the old cells in a good
state of preservation. Down the street at Buitenhof 35, the Prince
William V Gallery (Tues-Sun 11am-4pm; ¬1.40, free with Mauritshuis
ticket) has paintings by Rembrandt, Jordaens and Paulus Potter, but it's
more interesting as a reconstruction of a typical eighteenth-century
gallery, with paintings crammed on the walls from floor to ceiling.
Ten minutes' walk north along Noordeinde, the Panorama Mesdag ,
Zeestraat 65b (Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun noon-5pm; ¬3.40;
www.panorama-mesdag.com ), was designed in the late nineteenth century
by the local painter Hendrik Mesdag. It's a depiction of The Hague's
neighbouring seaside resort of Scheveningen as it would have appeared in
1881, completed in four months with help from his wife and the young
G.H. Breitner, and so naturalistic that it takes a few moments for the
skills of lighting and perspective to become apparent. Five minutes away
at Laan van Meerdervoort 7f, the house Mesdag bought as a home and
gallery today contains the Mesdag Museum (Mon-Fri 10am-5pm; ¬3.40), with
a collection of Hague School paintings alongside works by Corot,
Rousseau, Delacroix and Millet. Around the corner, framing
Carnegieplein, the Peace Palace (guided tours: Mon-Fri 10am, 11am, 2pm &
3pm; June-Sept also 4pm; ¬2.30) is home to the Court of International
Justice, with tapestries, urns, marble and stained glass on show inside
- the donations of various world leaders. North, the Gemeentemuseum ,
Stadhouderslaan 41 (Tues-Sun 11am-5pm; ¬6.80; bus #4 from Centraal
Station), is the most diverse of the city's museums, with outstanding
collections of musical instruments and Islamic ceramics, and an array of
modern art which traces the development of Dutch painting through the
Romantic, Hague and Expressionist schools to the De Stijl movement - the
museum has the world's largest collection of Mondriaan's paintings.
Halfway between The Hague and Scheveningen is one of the city's
best-known attractions, the moderately diverting Madurodam Miniature
City (daily 9am-6/8/10pm; ¬10; www.madurodam.nl ; tram #1/ #9), a scale
model of a Dutch town.
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