Madurodam Miniature Park

Madurodam at George Maduroplein 1 in The Hague is an outdoor miniature park presenting approximately 350 iconic Dutch buildings, landscapes, and engineering projects at a consistent 1:25 scale. Opened in 1952 as a memorial to George Maduro, a Dutch-Jewish resistance hero who died at Dachau, the park was conceived as both a tourist attraction and a charitable endeavour, with profits supporting Dutch student interests and veterans. The miniature models include Amsterdam's canal ring with working canal boats, Rotterdam's Erasmus Bridge and harbour, Schiphol Airport with taxiing aircraft, Kinderdijk windmills, the Keukenhof tulip fields, Deltawerken flood barriers, and dozens of historic town centres from across the country. Models are accompanied by interactive elements: visitors can direct barge traffic by pressing buttons, observe working trains and trams, and trigger animated scenes. The park is laid out in a loose geographic sequence roughly corresponding to the Dutch map, allowing visitors to orient themselves spatially. At dusk, thousands of miniature lights illuminate the models, transforming the park's atmosphere entirely and making evening visits particularly popular with families. Madurodam also has areas where children can participate in hands-on activities relating to Dutch engineering and water management, extending the educational dimension. A renovation cycle continuously updates models to reflect recent architectural additions to the real Netherlands. The park is 1.5 kilometres from The Hague city centre and accessible by tram.