As my kids get older, encouraging them to visit museums with me is often greeted with a questionable expression. So, when I told my kids that we were going to visit a 600-year-old prison museum, there was a spark of enthusiasm. Museum Gevangenpoort or the Prison Gate Museum is a…
Category: South Holland
Leiden
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Sweat Room of Leiden University
Once upon a random social media post, I came across something about ‘sweat room’ of Leiden University. It sounded … 🤔 According to history, Academia Lugduno Batava or Leiden University was founded by William of Orange in 1575, in recognition of the city’s courageous resistance against the siege by the…
Den Haag
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15 Must See Paintings @ Mauritshuis
This is the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis. It was built in the seventeenth century as a private residence for Count Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen (17 June 1604 – 20 December 1679). Thus, Mauritshuis or Maurits’ House, when translated. Maurits was the governor-general of the Dutch colony in the South American…
Den Haag
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Hoge Raad | Supreme Court
When my kids were little, they would dash towards these sculptures to try and spot the one with the name “Hugo de Groot”. Just because their last name is “de Groot” too. 😆 “Are we related?”, they would ask. Since then, I have always wondered about the building behind this…
Den Haag
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The Murder of the De Witt Brothers
As I walked aimlessly through the halls of Haags Historisch Museum / The Hague Historical Museum, a loud painting caught my eye. “The Murder of the De Witt Brothers”, by Pieter Frits, 1672. Scene one on the left, De Witt brothers dressed in black and white being dragged out of…
Den Haag
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King Willem of NL & LU
I have always noticed this bronze statue whenever I walk past the Binnenhof complex. Some noble guy sitting on a high horse on the Buitenhof, overlooking the Hofvijver lake, in the centre of The Hague. I never give it much thought. A week later when I was visiting Luxembourg, I…