THE HAGUE. - City of the Netherlands; royal and governmental residence. It is also called Gravenhage, "the count's enclosure," since in the mid-11th century the site was nothing but a hunting enclosure of the counts of Holland. It currently has 522,000 inhabitants, of whom 120,000 are Catholics; its territory is part of the diocese of Haarlem.
Catholics have a flourishing organization, as demonstrated by the following institutions, all located in the city, namely: Central Catholic Office for Instruction and Education; Dutch Catholic Council for Schools; National Directorate of the Pontifical Work of St. Peter the Apostle for the Native Clergy; National Secretariat of the Missionary Union of the Clergy; Central Office for the Missions in Indonesia; Catholic Office for Indonesia; Ecclesiastical Catholic Social Institute; Office of the Dutch Catholic Press; General Secretariat of the Marian Congregations in the Netherlands; Supreme Council of the Conferences of St. Vincent in the Netherlands; Union of Catholic Hospitals; Council of Catholic Hospitals; National Secretariat of the General Union of Catholic Employers; Catholic Federation of Employers' Syndicates; National Secretariat of the Union of Young Catholic Employers; Office of the Dutch Catholic Middle-Class Union; Office of the Catholic Union of Middle-Class Youth; National Secretariat of the Dutch Catholic Union of Farmers and Horticulturists; National Secretariat of the Dutch Catholic Union of Young Farmers and Horticulturists; National Headquarters of the Catholic Youth Movement; National Secretariat of the Dutch Catholic Sports Union; National Secretariat of the Youth Organization of the Catholic People's Party; National Office of the General Union of Catholic Artists; Central Federation of the Charitable Works of St. Francis.
Among the city's principal buildings, mention is made of: the Groote Kerk (great church) dedicated to St. James the Greater, with three naves in Gothic style from the beginning of the 14th century; it preserves some 16th-century stained-glass windows and a pulpit from 1550. It was sacked in 1528 and set on fire in 1559 and 1702.
The hexagonal bell tower was erected in 1432 and reaches a height of 100 m. The church is now occupied by the Protestants.
The current large Catholic church, also dedicated to St. James the Greater, is located on Parkstraat. Also characteristic is the ancient Dominican church founded in 1397, called Klooster Kerk (cloister church).
The "Mauritshuis," the ancient residence of John Maurice of Nassau, governor of Brazil, was erected by B. van Bassen and A. van 's Gravensande in 1636; restored after a fire in the 18th century, King William I founded there the Royal Museum of Painting, which contains one of the most important collections of Flemish art paintings of the 16th-17th centuries, together with a few Italian and Spanish examples. Among the 17 Rembrandts with which this Museum is rich, the Anatomy Lesson of Professor Tulp (1632) is to be remembered first of all. The Museum contains, among others, paintings by the following Dutch painters: D. Teniers the Younger, Jan Brueghel, A. Van Dyck, J. and A. van Ostade, C. Fabritius, J. van Ruisdael, Frans Hals, Jan Steen, P. Potter, J. Vermeer. The Municipal Historical Museum (Historisch Museum der Gemeente), housed in the ancient house of the Confraternity of the Archers of St. Sebastian (1636), contains archaeological and historical collections.
The Kröller Museum is the most remarkable gallery of modern art in all of Holland, rich in paintings not only of the Dutch school, but also of foreign schools, especially French. The H. W. Mesdag Museum, named after the painter who donated it to the State in 1903, comprises a rich collection of modern art paintings, Chinese, Japanese, Arab and Persian vases and bronzes.
The Meermann Weestrenianum Museum contains a collection of art objects, manuscripts, incunabula and coins bequeathed in 1816 by Count Meermann and in 1858 by Baron Weestrenen.
The Royal Library contains over 500,000 volumes and valuable manuscripts and incunabula, with an attached numismatic cabinet and a rich collection of cameos. Toward Scheveningen, on a design by the Belgian architect Cordonnier, the Palace of Peace was erected in the period 1907-13. - See plate L.
