Madurodam
Coordinates: 52°05′58″N 4°17′51″E / 52.0995°N 4.2975°E
Madurodam is a miniature park and tourist attraction in the Scheveningen district of The Hague, Netherlands, home to a range of perfect 1:25 scale model replicas of famous Dutch castles, public buildings, and large industrial projects as found at various locations in the country. The park was opened in 1952 and has been visited by tens of millions of visitors since that date.
Madurodam was named after George Maduro, a Jewish 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. In 1946 Maduro was posthumously awarded the medal of Knight 4th-class of the Military Order of William, the highest and oldest military decoration in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, for the valor he had demonstrated in the Battle of the Netherlands against German troops. His parents donated the funds necessary for the Madurodam project.
On 2 July 1952, the then teenaged princess Beatrix was appointed mayor of Madurodam, after which she was given a tour of her town. 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.
The park was the inspiration for Storybook Land, an attraction opened in Paris in 1955.[1] Additionally, it was a visit to Madurodam that inspired Fernando de Ercilla Ayestarán to promote construction of the Catalunya en Miniatura project, one of the largest miniature parks in the world, opened in Catalonia, Spain, in 1983.[2]
Gallery [edit]
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Inside Madurodam
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Miniature Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in Madurodam
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Inside Madurodam, Rijksmuseum
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Inside Madurodam, the Binnenhof with in the center the Ridderzaal
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Miniature planes at the miniature Schiphol airport in Madurodam
See also [edit]
- Miniature park
- Portugal dos Pequeninos, a park consists of diminutive versions of Portuguese houses and monuments founded in 1940
- Catalunya en Miniatura, miniature park opened in 1983, with 35.000 m² model area and 60.000 m² total area, located 17 km away from Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
- Miniatürk, miniature park with 15.000 m² model area, and 60.000 m² total area in Istanbul, Turkey.
- Huis ten Bosch — Japanese theme park modelled on the cities and landscape of the Low Countries
- Mini-Europe in Brussels, Belgium.
- Mini Israel near Latroun, in Israel.
- Minimundus in Klagenfurt, Austria.
- Miniatureart in istanbul, turkey.
References [edit]
Notes
- ^ "This Day in Disney History: JUN 18". Retrieved 2007-09-05.
- ^ eldiariomontanes.es, 06.10.2007, Catalunya en Miniatura. DE RUTA POR... CATALUÑA. Turismo diminuto (Spanish)
External links [edit]
Media related to Madurodam at Wikimedia Commons- Official website
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