The 10 Best Museum in The Hague Netherlands

The Hague is one of the most appealing cities in the Netherlands because it is nice and easy to live in. It’s known for a lot of things, like the number and quality of its museums, which are mostly in the city center or in the north, a quick tram ride away.

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In the most famous museums in The Hague, you can see beautiful paintings from the Dutch Golden Age. This was the peak of Dutch art in the 17th century, when world-famous painters like Rembrandt and Vermeer worked here. But there is much more: museums that look at the city itself, another that looks at crime and punishment, a fun contemporary art museum in the coastal district of Scheveningen, and several that focus on the charming land and seascapes of the Hague School of painters from the late 19th century.

Mauritshuis

Museum

The Mauritshuis is The Hague’s most beautiful art gallery. It has a world-famous collection of Dutch art that is squeezed into a charming mansion from 1641. A lot of what you see inside is original, and the silk wall coverings and huge painted ceilings make it a great place to see a wide range of Dutch art from the 17th century. Highlights include portraits by Rubens, several beautiful pieces by Rembrandt, and, perhaps most famous of all, three beautiful paintings by Vermeer: Girl with a Pearl Earring, Diana and her Nymphs, and View of Delft. Don’t miss this if you’re in The Hague for anything else.

Escher in Het Paleis

Art Gallery, Museum

Lange Voorhout is the most beautiful square in The Hague. It is a wide, cobbled piazza that is shaded by trees and surrounded by a long row of beautiful mansions. One of these grand buildings, a former royal residence, has been cleverly changed to show the lithographs and engravings of Escher, the country’s most talented and well-known graphic artist, who died in 1972. Escher’s work is very original and often hard to understand. For example, his Contrast is very precise and often confusing (Order and Chaos). The most popular exhibits, though, are on the top floor, which is full of optical illusions based on Escher’s work that are hard to see and hard to understand.

Vredespaleis

Museum

The Vredespaleis (Peace Palace), a grand neo-Renaissance building that was finished in 1913 and is dominated by a huge clock tower, is one of The Hague’s most interesting buildings. Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish-American businessman, paid for the palace because he thought it would be a good place for the Permanent Court of Arbitration, a group that worked to keep peace around the world. At the same time, Europe was getting ready for World War I, which was one of the most ironic things that could have happened at the time. Several international law courts work out of the palace now, but visitors can walk through many of its grand corridors and stop by the visitor center to learn more about its history.

Museum Beelden aan Zee

Museum

Contemporary sculpture is on display at the Museum Beelden aan Zee, which is both fun and makes you think. It is housed in a modern building that is built into the sand dunes above the beach at Scheveningen, near The Hague. The permanent collection at the museum is very good, but it’s the temporary shows that get the most attention, which is fair because they are so much fun. Allow some time to look at American sculptor Tom Otterness’s strange and funny Fairytale Sculptures, which are lined up above the beach in front of the museum.

Museum Bredius

Museum

Abraham Bredius, who used to be the director of the Mauritshuis, was a great art collector and a generous benefactor. When he died in 1946, he left his wonderful collection of paintings to the city. The paintings are on display in a beautiful old mansion with a beautiful staircase and intricate stucco work. It’s an easy-to-understand collection, which adds to the pleasure of a visit, and Rembrandt’s Head of Christ takes center stage. Other highlights include Roelandt Savery’s Boar Hunt, with its green leaves and fighting animals, and several lascivious-meets-bawdy paintings by Jan Steen, the most memorable of which is a very fruity painting called Couple in a Bedchamber.

Panorama Mesdag

Museum

Hendrik Mesdag (1831–1915) was a banker, an artist, and a big deal in his town. He may not have been the most humble person, but he did create a large, realistic painting of the beach at Scheveningen in 1881. This circular painting, which he calls his “panorama,” took him four months to finish with a little help from his friends. From a central viewing platform, its lighting and perspective show off the artist’s skill. If you like the Panorama Mesdag, you can see more of his work, mostly landscapes and seascapes, at his old home and studio, which is now called the Mesdag Collection.

Haags Historisch Museum

Museum

The Haags Historisch Museum. Photo by Maurice Savage / Alamy Stock Photo
This great museum is right in the middle of The Hague. It is in an impressive mansion from the 17th century, and it tells the many different stories of the city’s history. A digital map shows how The Hague has changed over the years, but the real stars of the show are the portraits of famous people and a large, beautiful painting by Jan van Goyen called A View of The Hague from the Southeast. Keep an eye out for the temporary shows about The Hague and its people.

Kunstmuseum den Haag

Museum

Kunstmuseum den Haag © Bildarchiv Monheim GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo
Let’s be honest: the Kunstmuseum is best for serious museum-goers or people who know what they want to do when they visit. This is the biggest and most varied of The Hague’s museums. It has a huge collection of fine and applied art spread out in a building whose soft-brown brick facades were designed by the famous architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage. The museum is known for how good its temporary exhibits are, which is why a lot of people go there. But if you want to look at the permanent collections, it’s best to choose which ones you want to see ahead of time. Otherwise, you might feel like there’s too much to see. Most people are most interested in the sharp angles of the De Stijl movement, especially Mondrian’s work.

Museum de Gevangepoort

Museum

The interesting Museum Gevangepoort (Prison Gate Museum), which opened in 1882, is housed in the medieval prison from the old town. The prison is a maze that fits into one of the old fortified gates. The most interesting thing about this museum is its collection of tools used for interrogation, punishment, and torture, such as branding irons, hand clamps, flogging benches, racks, and stretching poles. These tools were used to keep rebellious people and criminals in line. The museum tries hard to learn about crime and punishment, but some of the displays are just too scary for school groups to handle.

Museon

Museum

Museon is on the northern edge of the city. It has a wide range of hands-on, child-friendly exhibits about nature, culture, and technology.

There is something here for almost every child, but One Planet, one of the most important exhibits, gets people to think about the climate crisis.

It is based on the 17 sustainable development goals set by the United Nations. For example, it talks about the effects of fast fashion, wasting water, and plastic pollution. The goal is to get kids to think of ways to solve these problems.

Also, keep an eye out for the temporary exhibits, like the one about the frozen prehistoric body that was found inthe Alps in 1991.

Topic: The 10 Best Museum in The Hague Netherlands

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