Category: Dutch History
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What Is King’s Day in the Netherlands and Why Does Everyone Wear Orange?
King’s Day in the Netherlands: why millions wear orange, what happens on 27 April, and how to celebrate — plus get weekly stories free in our newsletter.
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Why Kinderdijk Has 19 Windmills (And Why They Still Matter)
A row of 19 windmills stands in a line along a canal south-east of Rotterdam, and together they look like the most Dutch thing on earth. Most visitors come, take a photograph, and leave thinking “well, that was lovely.” Almost nobody asks the obvious question: why are there 19 of them in a…
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Rembrandt’s Leiden — Where the Dutch Golden Age Was Born
Everyone knows that Rembrandt van Rijn was the greatest Dutch painter. Not everyone knows that before he became “Rembrandt of Amsterdam,” he was “Rembrandt of Leiden” — a miller’s son from a small university city 40 kilometres to the south, where he was born, apprenticed, and painted his first masterpieces before moving north…