Hague

The Hague (in Dutch, Den Haag [d impulses ] (?·i) approx. Den Haj; official name, 's-gravenhage [шsxra turningvun(n)にa becoming aware (?·i)) is a city of the Netherlands, administrative capital of the country and home of the Dutch royalty. It hosts the headquarters of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.

Third most populous city in the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam. It has an urban population of 504,260 inhabitants, making a total of 1,011,459 inhabitants in the metropolitan area, distributed over an area of approximately 100 km². The city is located in the west of the country, in the province of South Holland, of which it is the capital. Along with other Dutch cities, The Hague is part of the Randstad, the largest conurbation in the Netherlands and one of the largest in Europe.

The Hague is the seat of government of the Netherlands but not its capital. According to the Dutch constitution, this dignity corresponds to the city of Amsterdam. As the administrative center of the country, The Hague is home to the States General of the Netherlands, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands and the Council of State. The King of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, lives and works in the city. The Hague is also home to all of the country's foreign embassies and government ministries, as well as a large number of international organizations, including the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and Europol.

History

The Hague originated around 1230, when Florence IV, Count of Holland, bought a piece of land next to a pond (today Hofvijver) in order to build a hunting residence. In 1248 William II, Count of Holland and Romanorum Rex, decided to extend the residence to a palace. He died in 1256, before this palace was finished, but some of the parts of it were finished by his son Florence V, of which the Ridderzaal (Hall of the Knights'), still extant, is the most prominent. It is still used for political events, such as the monarch's annual speech from the throne. Since the 13th century, the counts of the Netherlands have used The Hague as their administrative center and residence.

The city in 1868.

The name of The Hague is mentioned for the first time under the name Hage Die in a document dating from 1242. In the 15th century, the more intelligent des Graven hage came into use, literally "the counts wood", with connotations such as "counts hedge, private enclosure or hunting grounds". Today this name is only used on some official documents such as birth and marriage certificates. The city itself uses "Den Haag" in all your communications.

When the dukes of Burgundy gained control over the provinces of Holland and Zeeland in the early 15th century, it was named to a stadtholder to rule in his stead with the States of the Netherlands as an advisory council. Its headquarters were in The Hague. In the XVI century, at the beginning of the Eighty Years' War between the Flemish rebels and the Spanish Crown, the absence of Walls in the city allowed Spanish troops to easily occupy the city. In 1575 the States of the Netherlands even considered the demolition of the city, but this proposal was abandoned after the mediation of William of Orange.

In 1588 The Hague also became the seat of government of the Dutch Republic.

After the Napoleonic Wars, present-day Belgium and the Netherlands were included in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands to form a barrier against France. As a compromise solution, Brussels and Amsterdam alternated as the capital of the new state, taking turns every two years, with the government in The Hague. Since the separation of Belgium in 1830, Amsterdam has remained the official capital of the kingdom of the Netherlands, while the government is located in The Hague.

Since ancient times, probably as early as the 16th century, the stork has been the symbol of The Hague.

The city today

Due to its history, The Hague's Old Town differs in several ways from the Old Towns of other smaller nearby cities such as Leiden and Delft. It does not have a narrow old part, bordered by canals and walls. Instead, it has small streets in the center of the city dating back to the late Middle Ages, and several wide streets in which are located large and luxurious residences of the century XVIII built for diplomats and wealthy Dutch families. It has a large church dating from the 15th century century, an impressive (built as such) town hall from the XVI, several large palaces from the XVII century, a Protestant church from the 17th century, and many important buildings from the XVIII. Beginning in the 1850s, the government began to play a more prominent role in Dutch society, and The Hague expanded rapidly. Many streets were built specifically for the large number of civil servants employed in the country's government and for the Dutch who withdrew from the administration and exploitation of the Dutch East Indies.

The city grew, and in 1903, the rural municipality of Loosduinen was partially annexed and in 1923 completely. Some parts of the city were badly damaged during World War II. On March 3, 1945, the Royal Air Force mistakenly bombed the Bezuidenhout neighborhood. The target was a V2 rocket installation in a nearby park. Due to navigation errors, the bombs fell on a densely populated and historic part of the city. 511 people died and still today, the remains of the bombing can be seen.

In the 1970s and 1980s, most white middle-class families moved to neighboring cities such as Voorburg, Leidschendam, Rijswijk and, above all, Zoetermeer. This led to the usual pattern of an impoverished inner city and more prosperous suburbs. Attempts to include parts of these municipalities in the city of The Hague were highly controversial. In the 1990s, with the consent of the Dutch parliament, The Hague annexed fairly large areas of neighboring cities, as well as non-contiguous areas of The Hague, where new residential areas were built and continue to be built.

Cityscape

View of the Hoftoren (left) and the Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sports (right).

The older parts of the city have many streets characteristic of their width and length. The houses are generally low-rise (usually no more than three stories). A large part of the south-western city was planned by the Dutch architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage around 1910. This "Plan de Berlage" It was characterized for years by the wide and welcoming streets. During World War II much of the west of The Hague was destroyed by the Germans. Subsequently, the modern architect Willem Marinus Dudok planned its renovation, creating housing blocks for the middle class.

The layout of the city is broader than other Dutch cities, and due to the addition of large old estates, the creation of several parks and the use of parkland around natural streams, it is a much greener city than any other in the Netherlands. There are very few canals in The Hague, as most of them were drained in the 19th century.

Some of the most prosperous areas and some of the poorest neighborhoods in the Netherlands are in The Hague. The richest areas (Statenkwartier, Belgisch Park, Marlot, Benoordenhout and Archipelbuurt) are generally located in the northwestern part of the city; however, the Vogelwijk and several neighborhoods of very recent construction, such as Vroondaal, are in the southwest, not far from the sea. The poorer areas like the Transvaal, Moerwijk, and the Schilderswijk can be found in the southeastern areas. This division is reflected in the local accent: the wealthiest citizens are generally called "Hagenaars" and speak the so-called "Haags bekakt" ("bekakt" is Dutch for "posh" or "stuck-up"). This contrasts with the "Hagenezen", who speak "Haags plat" ("platform", meaning "common" or "vulgar").

Geography

Map of The Hague.

The former colony of the Netherlands East Indies ("Nederlands-Indië", now called Indonesia) has made its mark in The Hague. Many streets are named after places in the old colony, and there is a notable mestizo community. After the loss of the colonial possessions in 1949, many call The Hague “the widow of the Indies”.

Districts

The Hague has eight official districts (stadsdelen) which are further divided into smaller parts (wijken). Those districts are as follows:

• Camp
• Haagse Hout
• Laak
• Leidschenveen-Ypenburg
• Loosduinen
• Centrum
• Scheveningen
• Segbroek

Demographics

The population of The Hague reached the round figure of 500,000 on September 1, 2011, and has been increasing ever since. It is the third most populous city in the Netherlands and is part of one of the largest conurbations in Europe, the Randstad. According to estimates made as of November 2012, 504,260 people live in the urban area, which exceeds one million in the metropolitan area.

Almost half of the population is foreign and the proportion of immigrants compared to the native population is increasing, highlighting neighborhoods such as Schilderswijk and Transvaalkwartier where the percentage of immigrants, since 2005, is close to 100%. The composition of the immigrant population varies by neighborhood. The neighborhoods with the lowest percentage of immigrants are Duindorp, Kijkduin and Vogelwijk.

The distribution of the population in 2012 showed that 249,434 people or 49.5% of the population were Dutch. 174,142 inhabitants were non-Western immigrants, or 34.6% of the population, where the colonies of people from Suriname stood out with 47,038 (9.4% of the total), from Turkey with 37,982 people (7.6% of the total). and Morocco with 28,372 (5.6% of the total). The remaining 73,221 inhabitants were Western immigrants, 15.9% of the total.

Unlike other large cities in the Netherlands, such as Amsterdam and Rotterdam, The Hague has never been an industrial center, it is instead a largely residential city.

Economy

Rascacielos called "Het Strijkijzer".

The economy of The Hague is a service economy. Most of the employment in the city, 26% or 56,000 people in 2006, is provided by the government and international organizations. Large employers in this sector include the municipality of The Hague and the ministries of Defence, Justice, Environment, Foreign Affairs, Interior and Transport. Other important industries in the city are business services with 19% of employment, health with 14%, free economy with 10%, small-scale and wholesale industry with 10%, and TMT (technology, media and telecommunications) with 10%. Almost all ministries and public organizations are located in The Hague, in addition to several international companies that have their headquarters in The Hague.

The largest employers are:

• Royal Dutch Shell, hydrocarbon company, best known for its Shell brand
• KPN, the national telephone company and ICT
• AEGON, one of the largest Dutch insurance companies
• PostNL, international mail and logistics provider

The Hague has never been a major industrial center, with the exception of the fishing port of Scheveningen.

Politics

The Hague is home to the First and Second Chambers, which make up the Estates General of the Netherlands. King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands lives in The Hague. All foreign embassies and ministries are located in the city, as well as the Supreme Court and various organizations and pressure groups. Therefore The Hague is considered the administrative capital of the country.

International organizations

Peace Palace.

The Hague is one of the headquarters of the United Nations Organization (UN), The Hague hosts several of its institutions, including the International Court of Justice, based in the Peace Palace (Vredespaleis , whose construction was financed by Andrew Carnegie).

The main international organizations based in The Hague are:

• Eurojust, European Union body composed of prosecutors
• European Police Office (Europol)
• Hague Academy of International Law, High-level Centre for the Teaching of Public and Private International Law
• Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), the oldest and most important private institution for the harmonization of international law
• International Court of Justice, located at the Palace of Peace
• International Criminal Court (ICC)
• International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
• International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the appeals court only. The court itself is in Arusha, Tanzania
• Iran-United States Claims Tribunal
• Organization of Unrepresented Nations and Peoples
• NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA)
• Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)
• Permanent Court of Arbitration, the oldest institution for the resolution of international disputes
• The European Library

Culture

View of the Binnenhof and the Ridderzaal (chief room), political center of the Netherlands.

The Hague has a large number of outstanding museums and cultural institutions, notably the Madurodam complex, which is a miniature city, containing hundreds of models of Dutch monuments in a typically Dutch miniature landscape. It was inaugurated in 1952 and since then more than ten million people have visited it. Also noteworthy is the Mauritshuis, which displays many paintings by Dutch masters, such as Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt van Rijn and Paulus Potter.

Other noteworthy museums are the Escher Museum which is located in the former Royal Palace in Lange Voorhout, the Haags Historisch which shows the history of the city from the Middle Ages to the present day or the Gevangenpoort Museum (literally the " jail door") which is an old prison housed in a guardhouse from the XV century, with authentic dungeons medieval and torture chambers. The Gemeentemuseum Den Haag (Municipal Museum) houses the world's largest collection of works by the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, as well as a large collection of modern art.

The Panorama Mesdag houses a cylindrical 360° panoramic painting, 14 meters high by 120 meters long, depicting the seashore at Scheveningen in the 17th century XIX. Painted by Hendrik Willem Mesdag, it is presented in such a way that it is almost as if one is looking at a real scene rather than a painting. The Hague also has numerous historical buildings, among which the Binnenhof complex could be highlighted, as it was the former political headquarters of the Netherlands.

Filmography

• Feest!; 1963 film directed by Paul Verhoeven.
• Hum Tum; 2004 film directed by Kunal Kohli.
• Ocean's Twelve2004 film directed by Steven Soderbergh.
• Zwartboek (black book); 2006 film directed by Paul Verhoeven.
• Second version of videoclip Viva la vida (Coldplay); directed by Anton Corbijn in 2008.

Transportation

The Netkous or stockings of grids, a stretch of viaduct with the buildings of the financial center on the right.

One of the city's modern trams.

The main motorway connecting to The Hague is the A12 which connects to Utrecht and the German border. The A12 starts directly in the heart of the city, it was built in 1970 and the section to Utrecht, known as the "Utrechtsebaan" It is currently heavily overloaded. In the late 1990s plans were made for a second thoroughfare in the city (the "Trekvliettracé" or formerly called "Rotterdamsebaan"), but they have continually been put on hold. Other important highways that connect to the city are the A4, which connects the city with Amsterdam, and the A13, which goes to Rotterdam and connects to the highways towards the Belgian border. There is also the A44 that connects the city with Leiden, Haarlem and Amsterdam.

Public transport in The Hague consists of a network of trams and a considerable number of bus routes, operated by HTM Personenvervoer. Plans for a metro were shelved in the 1970s. However, in 2004, a tunnel was built under the city center with two metro stations ("Spui" and "Grote Markt"), which are shared by lines 2, 3 and 4 of the RandstadRail and track 6 of the tram.

Railway

The Hague has two main train stations, Den Haag Hollands Spoor (HS) and Den Haag Centraal Station (CS), only 1.5 km away from each other, because these two stations were built and operated by two different railway companies in the 19th century. The routes from east to west of the lines end at Central Station, while from north to south they do so at Hollands Spoor station. Currently, the central station offers good connections with the rest of the country, with direct services to the main cities such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht.

RandstadRail connects The Hague to the nearby cities of Zoetermeer, Rotterdam and Leidschendam-Voorburg. It consists of three light rail lines (2, 3 and 4 to Zoetermeer and Leidschendam-Voorburg) and one metro line (E to Rotterdam).

Air transportation

Rotterdam-The Hague Airport, which can be reached from the central station of line E RandstadRail, which has a shuttle service to the airport and Meijersplein station. There are also several direct trains every hour from Hollands Spoor and Centraal train stations. However Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is used more frequently by people traveling to and from The Hague by air.

Sports

As in the rest of the Netherlands, soccer is a very popular sport in the city, which has ADO Den Haag, which is part of the Eredivisie (the highest Dutch category) and which plays its matches in the Den Haag Stadium. Said team was founded in 1904 and to its record it has two KNVB Cups and two league titles that date from the era before professional football. The HVV Den Haag stands out as an amateur, which was the main club in the country before the First World War.

In other sports, field hockey stands out, since its HGC team is well known in the city. Also cricket is traditionally one of the most popular sports in The Hague, with a large number of strong Dutch league teams located there. The local rugby team is the Haagsche Rugby Club (also known as HRC), which has appeared in the Guinness Book of Records for being the Dutch team that always won the championship, both adults and youth. They also have top-class ice hockey, handball, and American football teams. In addition, since Raymond van Barneveld won the world championship, darts are another sport whose popularity has increased a lot in the city.

A well-known half marathon competition is held annually, the CPC Loop Den Haag in which world records were broken in some of its editions. In 1994 The Hague hosted the World Equestrian Games of the International Equestrian Federation.

Places of interest

• Madurodam: is a city that shows the Netherlands in miniature.
• Mauritshuis: Museum featuring paintings by Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt van Rijn and Paulus Potter.
• Municipal Museum: hosts the largest collection of paintings by Dutch painter Piet Mondrian.
• Escher Museum: a museum about Maurits Cornelis Escher located in the old Royal Palace in Lange Voorhout.
• Palace of Peace (Vredespaleis): it is the seat of the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration and other institutions. Here are some of the most important disputes in the world.
• Escher in het Paleis: it is the former Winter Palace of Queen Mother Emma, now converted into a museum that presents an impressive collection of works by the artist M. C. Escher.

The main annual events of the city are: HaSchiBa, multicultural festival (August) and fireworks festivals (summer).

Featured Characters

Twinned cities

It is twinned with the following cities:

• Bethlehem, Palestinian National Authority
• Juigalpa, Nicaragua
• Warsaw, Poland