Tuesday 18 June 2013

Madurodam: Marvel of Miniatures!

Drs. Uma & Yashesh Anantani were on tour to European countries in 2012. Visiting the marvel that is Madurodam was one of the most thrilling highlights. This replica of The Netherlands truly proves the famous innovative, engineering genius of the Dutch.

Fact File


Madurodam is a miniature of Holland located in ScheveningenThe Hague, in The Netherlands (Holland) and a 40-min drive from Amsterdam. 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. This major Dutch tourist attraction was built in 1952 and has been recently reconstructed from a scratch.



The miniature 'city' was named after George Maduro, a Jewish law student from CuraƧao 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 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.


The models are exact replicas of real buildings in Holland. Some outstanding miniatures are of Utrecht Cathedral, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport, Rotterdam harbour, the canals of Amsterdam and the Central Railway Station, the Stadium, the Dutch Houses of Parliament, palaces, historic houses and castles, et cetera.

The models are so beautifully and accurately constructed that it blurs any differences from the original; the grounds are landscaped with lawns and gardens and hundreds of bonsai trees, many of them 6o years old but only 1/2 metre high! The detailing and its craftsmanship is superb and faultless.


If you are a child at heart and like moving model trains, traffic on highways, planes and ships and other miniature objects and want to feel like a Giant surveying a tiny city at your feet, the fantastic Madurodam is the place to visit in The Netherlands!