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The origin of the Hofvijver	The Hague links
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Demolished houses	Religon and education
The amount of water	Centre -part 1-
Some Dutch words	Centre -part 2-
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Photo's: Vijverberg

The Vijverberg
Hofvijver	Hofvijver 2	Hofvijver 3	Hofvijver 4    top
Hofvijver 5	Vijverberg	Vijverberg 2	Vijverberg 3     top
Vijverberg 4	Vijverberg 5	Vijverberg 6	Vijverberg 7      top
Vijverberg 8	Vijverberg 9	painting vijverberg 1	top painting vijverberg 2

Explanation:

Origin of the hofvijver

The origin of the hofvijver is a natural pool in a sand hill. Next to this sand hill a castle was builded. The castle was property of the counts (Graven) of Holland. Nearby this castle "Hage" a small village was build. s'Gravenhage is a combination of the words counts (Graven) and Hage. The Dutch name for The Hague is Den Haag or 's-Gravenhage. Although both names are valid, most civil servants will use the name "s-Gravenhage".

The vijverberg and the island

The hofvijver was not deep, so they digged to make it al little bit deeper. The sand from the pond was trown on a hill and on that hill some houses are build. The pond (vijver) mountain (berg). They middle of the pond wasn't digged and so there came a small island. In the pond they start to breed fish, like carps and eels. The city symbol of The Hague is a stork with an eal in his bill.

The lost ring

It was commen to ride through the pool with horses. One of the ladies at the court of Albrecht van Beijeren has lost a verry valuable ring in the pond. To search the ring, Albrecht emptied the whole pond. I don't know if the ring has been found.
Even today if a love relationship in The Hague has finished, some Hague people throw there engagement ring into the pond. Willem Alexander (the future king) has said: "If I'm not allow to marry Maxima, I throw my crown into the hofvijver". Luckely the government allowed him to marry Maxima and now Maxima is the most popular member of the Royal Family.
(The reason why the Dutch government wasn't happy with Maxima, was because the father of Maxima (Zorregieta) was a member of government of dicator Jorge Videla.

Government buildings

Count Willem 2 has erected the government buildings. The small tower ("quot; Het torentje") is the working place of the prime minister. It has a nice view over the hofvujver. In the old days all the governmental buildings were surrounded by canals, but most of these canals are now filled. Today the water supply for the pond is under the street.

Demolished houses

At the painting(2) of the vijverberg you can see some houses of the previous century, which are demolished. Behind the houses you can see a small part of the Prison's Gate.

The amount of water in the pond.

They have investigated how much water was in the hofvijver: approximately 33.660.000 liter water.

Some Dutch words

Vijver: pond
Berg:   mountain
Hof:    court