Madurodam at The Hague

Madurodam is a miniature park and tourist attraction in the Scheveningen district of The Hague. It is home to a range of 1:25 scale model replicas of famous Dutch landmarks and historical sites. It was opened in 1952 and it has been visited by tens of millions of visitors. The money collected goes to various Dutch charities.

The park was named after a war hero, George Maduro, a Jewish law student who fought in WWII and also for the Dutch Resistance. He died in Dachau concentration camp at the age of 28 in 1945, 11 weeks before the camp was liberated. He was posthumously awarded the highest and oldest medal in The Netherlands for his valor.

The park is a fabulous experience. One need not travel to all parts of The Netherlands to appreciate all the marvelous buildings displayed here in miniature. Here are some of the buildings. Whereas I am not sure what and where all of them are, I have labelled as many as I could.

The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

Het Loo Palace is a palace in Apeldoorn, built by the House of Orange-Nassau. The symmetrical Dutch Baroque building was built between 1684 and 1686 for William III and Mary II of England.  The garden was designed by Claude Desgotz.  The building was renovated between 1976 and 1982 and is now a state museum.

The famous Kaaswaag or Cheese Market in Alkmaar.  The market originally provided shelter for poor travellers.  It was then converted to a weighing house in 1582 and it now houses the Dutch Cheese Museum.  Viewing it brings back pleasant memories of our visit to it five years ago.

Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.  This 1885 building houses one of the largest and most important paintings from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century.

A modern building, a rarity in this park but it provides a nice contrast to the other lovely histroical buildings.