‘New’ Peace Palace added to miniature town Madurodam

Replica of gift by U.S. financier Carnegie

THE HAGUE - A new replica of the Peace Palace has been unveiled at the famed miniature town Madurodam, the third since the park’s inception in 1952. Creation of a new replica had become necessary as the earlier model had detoriated in the open air theme park.

The unveiling of the new miniature coincided with the 100th anniversary of the Carnegie Foundation, the official owner of the The Hague landmark. The Peace Palace was built after U.S. steel industrialist Andrew Carnegie earmarked $1.5 million for the construction of a building - originally to be named Temple of Peace - to house the Permanent Court of Arbitration and a foundation entity was needed to own the property.

Global cooperation

Following an open, international competition, a design by French architect Louis M. Cordonnier was chosen and amended by Dutch architect Albert J. van der Steur. Carnegie had stipulated that the building was to stand alone in a park, have spacious rooms for meetings and be provided with a large law library making use of the newest state-of-the-art technical support.

All nations contributed in the construction of the Peace Palace by donating products unique to their land, be it artistic, natural, agricultural or industrial. Thus, the Palace was indeed a result of an all-compassing, global effort at cooperation.

Court of Justice

The Peace Palace in a park-like setting with wide expanses, continues to be a major tourist attraction in The Hague, the seat of the Dutch government and of an increasing number of international courts and tribunals. It was inaugurated in 1913, with Carnegie occupying the place of honour next to Queen Wilhelmina.

The Peace Palace is home to the International Court of Justice, which is the principal judicial body of the United Nations. It also houses the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the entity for which it was built. Established in the famed building as well is the Academy of International Law. The Peace Palace Library of International Law is the best and most-famous of its kind in the world.

The Peace Palace also hosts special events on international policy and law.

George Maduro

Madurodam was instituted in 1952 as a venue to generate funds for the operation of a sanitarium for recovering tuberculosis patients. At the same time, the Maduro family of Curaçao provided capital for the facility as a memorial to their son George who had died as a Dutch prisoner-of-war in Dachau in 1945.

The park on the road to the seaside resort of Scheveningen went through an expansion two years ago. Its core still consists of a large number of scale models of all kinds of Dutch landmarks, modern as well as historic buildings, and other popular destinations such as Schiphol. Trees that enhance the open-air maquette are kept ‘miniature’ as well.