A Walk through The Hague

We spent the better part of a day wandering in the central part of The Hague, (or as it calls itself when it’s at home, Den Haag) and came away clear that even in that limited center, there’s much more to see.

Not as impressive as it seems: plaque says that “this road was begun in 1923, the year Queen Wilhelmina’s 25-year reign began.” But pretty.

As a city, and the third-largest in the Netherlands, it’s a bit of a puzzle. It’s home to most of the Dutch government and foreign embassies, but it’s not the capital. It’s home to Royal Dutch Shell and other big corporations, but it’s not especially a business city. And it’s one of the half-dozen world cities that host major U.N. institutions: The International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court sit here. 

Mauritshuis museum

Our visit started out mainly as a trip to see exhibits at the Mauritshuis museum, but left us with time to take in streets filled with interesting buildings, busy stores, and even some unusual street art, both the official and unofficial sorts. But none of that seems to weigh heavily on the city at ground level.

Next-door neighbor to the Mauritshuis is the Binnenhof; behind this facade lies a huge courtyard, and the center of the Dutch parliament and many government agencies. Nearby, the impressively-lettered facade of the Justice Ministry. As in much of the area, its neighbor is in a quite contrasting style.

Good lettering has always caught my eye, and The Hague has quite a bit of it along its main shopping streets.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

The city’s architecture is quite a mix of styles, as noted, and some is quite impressive.

Here’s some fine Art Deco among the department stores…

And some interesting outdoor architecture in a park, with a pleasant refreshment kiosk, and an unusually prominent comfort station.

The ‘New Church,’ built in the 1600s to replace a church that had become too small, is now a concert hall. It was once on an island surrounded by canals, but they were filled around 1900. The watercolor below shows the church as Van Gogh saw it in 1882. Nearby is a memorial to Jews deported from The Hague by Nazis during the German occupation of the Netherlands.

The Hague’s streets also make room for other sculpture, some of an evidently less serious purpose. These are along a main shopping street.

For local color, we have a nicely-designed manhole cover, featuring, among other images a bird in flight; an interesting local choice of venue for love locks (but not an officially sanctioned one) and political signs of the times.