The Hague

The Hague began as a hunting ground and court of the counts of Holland. Count Floris IV probably bought a court beside the Hofvijver pond in 1229; his son William II, elected King of the Romans in 1248, began turning it into a palace, and the Ridderzaal, the Knights' Hall, was completed under Floris V. The village that grew around this Binnenhof was first recorded as Die Haghe in 1242. It became the counts' main residence in 1358 and gathered government institutions, but it was never given city rights, so that the rulers could keep control of it.

Without walls, it fell easily to Spanish troops early in the Eighty Years' War. From 1588 it was the permanent seat of the States General of the Dutch Republic, and while Amsterdam remained the capital, government stayed here. Louis Bonaparte finally granted city rights in 1806. After 1850 the city expanded rapidly, with new streets for civil servants and for officials retiring from the Dutch East Indies, and at the end of the 19th century it was chosen as the home of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, housed from 1913 in the Peace Palace.

The Second World War was hard on the city: many Jews were killed, a large quarter was torn down for the Atlantic Wall, and on 3 March 1945 RAF bombers aiming at V-2 rocket sites in the Haagse Bos hit the Bezuidenhout district instead, killing 511 people. The population peaked at about 600,000 around 1965 before families moved to the suburbs. Since the war the city has added the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court and many other bodies, and in 2025 it hosted a NATO summit.

Government and the law set the city's tone: ministries, embassies, courts and diplomats give it a more formal, international air than other Dutch cities, and its many foreign residents support foreign pubs, shops and cultural events. The royal presence adds ceremony. On Prinsjesdag the King rides in procession from Noordeinde Palace to open the parliamentary year, and the city's own celebration of King's Day begins the night before with KoningsNach — spelt without the final t.

The former Dutch East Indies left a deep mark. Officials on home leave spent long stays here from the 19th century, many streets are named after places in Indonesia and Suriname, and after Indonesian independence in 1949 the city's large Indo community, of mixed Dutch and Indonesian descent, gave it the nickname "the Widow of the Indies". Local identity also runs along class lines, from the posh accent of the north-west to the broad dialect of the south-east.

The Mauritshuis and the Kunstmuseum are among the leading museums in the country, the Nederlands Dans Theater and the Residentie Orchestra are based here, the Royal Conservatory and the Royal Academy of Art train musicians and artists, and the Paard van Troje is one of the country's largest music venues. Darts has a big following, helped by local hero Raymond van Barneveld's world titles, and ADO Den Haag is the main football club.

The Hague had about 569,000 inhabitants at the start of 2026, making it the third-largest Dutch city, at the heart of a metropolitan region of more than 2.4 million shared with Rotterdam. Almost 60 per cent of residents have a migration background, among the highest shares in the country. The city contains some of the most prosperous and some of the poorest neighbourhoods in the Netherlands: wealthier districts such as the Statenkwartier and Benoordenhout lie in the north-west near the sea, while Transvaal, Moerwijk and the Schilderswijk in the south-east are poorer.

Work is dominated by government and international institutions, which provided about a quarter of all jobs in 2006, alongside company headquarters, the courts and organisations of international law, and tourism, which employs about one resident in ten. There has never been much industry beyond the Scheveningen fishing harbour. Students add to the mix through The Hague University, the arts schools and a Leiden University campus opened in 2012.

The city is green and low-rise by Dutch standards, with houses rarely above three storeys, many parks and the dunes and beach within reach by tram. Politics is local and lively: after the 2026 municipal election, the right-wing populist local party Hart voor Den Haag became the largest group and formed a coalition with the VVD, DENK and the CDA.

The Hague's food is shaped above all by its links with Indonesia. As a centre of the Dutch-Indonesian community, it is known for some of the best Indonesian and colonial Dutch-Indies cooking in the country, from small takeaways to restaurants serving rijsttafel. Chinatown on the Wagenstraat adds Chinese and other Asian kitchens.

The city's own sweet is the Haagsche hopje, a sweet with a light coffee and caramel flavour created in the 18th century. The story goes that Baron Hendrik Hop, told by his doctor to give up coffee, asked the confectioner Theodorus van Haaren for "lumps of coffee", and the result was a sweet of coffee, caramel, cream and butter that was later exported to royal houses across Europe.

The sea supplies the rest. Scheveningen celebrates the season's first herring, Hollandse Nieuwe, on Vlaggetjesdag, after the first barrel is auctioned for charity on the preceding Thursday. The Haagse Markt, the largest market in the country, sells food from the city's many communities, and the café terraces of the Grote Markt and the Plein are where the city goes out to eat and drink.