The Hague (Den Haag, officially known as ’s-Gravenhage), the seat of the Dutch government, is home to over 60 foreign embassies, the International Court of Justice and the capital of the province of Zuid-Holland. This has earned the city an unwarranted reputation for being dull and sterile, but in fact The Hague is well worth visiting and boasts a number of attractions. The central part of the Old Town is the Binnenhof, an irregular group of buildings surrounding an open space. The seaside resort of Scheveningen (which has the country’s only pier) is a nearby suburb. Walking around the old parts of town is a joy in itself – the local tourist office publishes a map that opens up the city and also includes most of the many antique shops in The Hague. The Parliament Buildings and Knight’s Hall are 13th-century buildings where there are regular tours and slide shows that illuminate their history, while the Royal Cabinet of Paintings, housed in the Mauritshuis, is a collection that includes the Anatomical Lesson of Dr Tulp by Rembrandt, and other 17th-century Dutch works. Other attractions include the Gemeentemusem, a recently renovated municipal museum that houses an interesting collection of modern art as well as interactive displays illustrating a wide range of subjects; the Puppet Museum, with its old and new puppets; the antique market at the Lange Voorhout; the Duinoord district built in the style of old Dutch architecture; the Haagse Bos wooded park; the 17th-century Nieuwe Kerk; and the Royal Library. On the outskirts of the city is one of Europe’s most unusual attractions: Madurodam Miniature Town is a playground for the young and not so young alike, a scale model (1:5) of a typical Dutch landscape, complete with houses, motorways and even fire-fighting boats extinguishing real fires. Adjacent to Madurodam is Sand World, a recently opened collection of sand sculptures. Another bizarre local attraction is the Panorama Mesdag, the largest panoramic circular painting in the world, create by the artist Mesdag amongst others, and famous for its perfect optical illusion
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