Lange Voorhout Palace in The Hague

Our 3rd. Royal Palace visit took place on January 7th. 2024 in The Hague. 
Then we visited the Lange Voorhout Palace and the exhibition
"Escher in het Paleis". 













Some History


The Lange Voorhout Palace in The Hague was designed in 1760 by
the architect Pieter de Swart for Anthony Patras (1718-1764), a deputy
to the States General of the Netherlands.

In 1796 the mansion was bought by Archibald Hope (1747-1821),
a manager of the Dutch West India Company. 

Archibald was a cousin of Henry Hope and Jan Hope and involved
in the family banking business. In 1808 his wife died. 

Napoleon and his wife on their travels through the First French Empire
used it one night. The inventory was sold in December 1821 and lasted
more than two weeks. 

The building was bought by Renaud Diederick James de Ginkell,
7th Earl of Athlone (1773–1823), married to a daughter of
John Williams Hope.

In 1831 the Minister of Foreign Affairs Johan Gijsbert
Verstolk van Soelen (1776-1845) moved in. He had an enormous
collection of Dutch art which was sold after his death.














A royal Palace

In 1848 it was bought by Prince Henry. After his death in 1879 his
widow Princess Marie of Prussia used the palace and probably
lived there till 1885.

Prince Henry and Princess Marie of Prussia


Princess Sophie of the Netherlands inherited the palace and in 1896
Queen Emma bought it from her sister-in-law. She had it renovated and
rebuilt before moving in the palace in 1901. Like prince Henry
queen-mother Emma used the palace as a winter palace; in the
summer she stayed at Soestdijk.





Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont


The palace was used as an office for Wilhelmina, Juliana and till
1984 for Beatrix. In 1991, princess Juliana sold the building to the
municipality of The Hague on condition that it would only be
used for cultural activities.


Prince's Day 


👉 Nowadays the balcony scene on Prince's Day (3rd Tuesday in 
September) take place on Noordeinde Palace. However during the
reign of Queen Juliana, she used The Lange Voorhout Palace as a
working Palace. At that time Noordeinde was used by other 
organisations. 

Between 1952 and 1984 the balcony scene on Prince's Day took 
place at the Lange Voorhout Palace in The Hague. 



Prince's Day 1959


A visit


You can visit the Lange Voorhout Palace in The Hague each day from
11 am till 5 pm.

More information on this link




I really enjoyed to see this wonderful palace inside. It was a very nice
exhibition of Escher too. The combination of these two, the history and
the culture is a fantastic mix. 

The pictures were taken in 2022 and 2024 by me with the exception of
the picture of Prince Henry and his wife. This is a portrait from Wikipedia. 
Also the picture of Prince's Day 1959 is from Wikipedia. This article is
edited by Oscar Meijer. 

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