Jomoud's Fotothing

My 2008 trip to Holland.

A visit to MADURODAM

Of course the famous Dom Tower in Utrecht is represented at Madurodam. The replica of this famous cathedral took 10 months to construct. The clocks and the carillon as well as the tower itself have been copied in minute detail. By pressing a button, visitors can make the bells ring.

Madurodam is a miniature city located in The Hague, in the Netherlands. It is a model of a Dutch town on a 1:25 scale, composed of typical Dutch buildings and landmarks, as are found at various locations in the country. It was built in 1952 and has been visited by tens of millions of visitors since then. The miniature city was named after George Maduro, a law student from Curaçao who fought the Nazi occupation forces as a member of the Dutch resistance and died at Dachau concentration camp in 1945. His parents donated the money to start the Madurodam project.

On July 2, 1952, teenaged princess Beatrix was appointed mayor of Madurodam. When Beatrix became queen of the Netherlands, she relinquished this function. Today, the mayor of Madurodam is elected by a youth municipal council consisting of 25 pupils from schools in the region.

Madurodam is Holland’s smallest city. 16.000 inhabitants live in houses, apartments or farmsteads.
They cover each year 14.000 km by car and 16.000 km by train. There are 4542 cars and trucks, and 8 motorways. The city boasts 10 museums, 5 train stations, 4 churches, 3 theatres, 27 bridges, 1 post-office, 58 ships, 3150 lamp posts, 30.000 bulbs, mainly tulips. There is one school, one university, and one hotel. Town houses, flats, appartments, office buildings, castles, windmills, farmsteads, a beach and a zoo are places where the Madurodamers work, live and relax.
The tallest building is 25m high and houses the Rotterdam Insurance Company. The façade is entirely made of glass and a window cleaners’ nightmare. Madurodam offers a variety of architectural styles, from the Gothic St. Jan Basilica to the modern bridge dwellings, houses that span a river, and everything in between.

There are many typical Dutch landmarks: canals and canal houses, Dam Square and the Royal Palace, Anne Frank House, Skinny Bridge, Rijksmuseum, Dom Tower, and Cheese Market. Madurodam Rail is one of the big attraction in the city. Twelve different types of trains cover 4 kilometres. Each train covers 16.000 kilometres per year. The highway within Madurodam features a constant procession of cars, the harbor is a hub of activity and the airport is always busy.