We all want to be favoured by the gods. But how do you get the right god to favour you? Shopkeepers and other entrepreneurs in The Hague did this by decorating their facades with the image or symbols of Mercury, the god of commerce. Mercury The Roman god Mercury was the god of travellers, commerce …
Most schoolchildren are happy to be given an extra day off from classes. On October 6, 1945 the mayor of The Hague gave this treat to the city’s schoolchildren. The reason was the visit of an important man: General Dwight Eisenhower, commander-in-chief of the Allied forces in Europe during the recently-concluded Second World War. Eisenhower …
For over 200 years, our Head of State has read the Speech from the Throne on Prinsjesdag. What has actually changed in that time and what has remained the same? Let’s take a look at the Speech from the Throne of 1820. The date To begin with: in 1820, Prinsjesdag was not on the third …
By Corry van Straten When the Second World War broke out in the Netherlands in 1940, there were two psychiatric hospitals in Loosduinen: Rosenburg and Bloemendaal. What happened to these institutions during the war is described in my book “Een wereld die er niet meer is (2015)”. Both institutions merged into Parnassia Groep after 1998. …
The Rosenburg and Bloemendaal Psychiatric Hospitals during World War II Read More »
If you cycle through the Scheveningse Bosjes on a nice afternoon, you probably travel along the Galgenpad (‘Gallow path’). But fortunately the time has passed when you could have had a rope around your neck in that area. Dune area and the Bataaf Like many parts of The Hague, the Scheveningse Bosjes (‘Scheveningen Woods’) were …
It is difficult to imagine our streets without advertising, although it can sometimes become too much. For example, last year in The Hague there was a lot of protest against the placing of illuminated billboards (which were installed non the less). Perhaps it is time to talk about their illustrious predecessors: the transformer columns. The …
In the winter of 1975-1976 I spent a few weeks in a building with a sea view. No, I did not sleep in one of the seaside hotels at the time, but in the Zeehospitium, which was then still located on Kijkduin. The Zeehospitium was a rehabilitation clinic with departments of orthopaedics and rheumatism. I …
On May 21, 1945, the great Canadian Victory Parade gave residents of The Hague the opportunity to express their thanks to those who had liberated the city from five years of occupation and war. Heroes – coll Museon The weather Until the 21st, the month of May 1945 had been very sunny, but on this …
The Hague’s Grote (or St. Jacobs) Kerk (Great or St. James’ Church) is at times host to quite lively events, such as the Beer Tasting Festival and the International Whiskey Festival. But the church is also the venue for more solemn events: the blessing of princely and royal marriages. Princess Carolina On 5 March 1760, …
How will we look back on the COVID-19 epidemic in a few decades? Will it inspire artists to create works about it? A wonderful example of such work can be found in The Hague: the memorial mosaic in the Antonius Abtkerk on the Scheveningseweg made by Antoon Molkenboer in the late 1920s. Cholera epidemic In …
Commemorating an epidemic in the Antonius Abtkerk Read More »
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