Interesting & Fun Facts About Holland

· There are around 16 million bicycles in Holland, which supposedly means almost one for every inhabitant.

· The highest point in the country is called the ‘mountain’ and it is as much as 323 meters high.

· Hollanders usually have a bunch of flowers in their living rooms.

· Holland has the highest museum density in the world, with almost 1000 museums.

· The Van Gogh Museum and the Kröller-Müller Museum of Holland house the largest Van Gogh collections in the world.

· The first World Press Photo Exhibition was held in Holland only.

· The landscape of Holland is dotted with windmills, which have become its hallmark.

· A consistent drainage is necessary to save Holland from flooding. For the purpose, windmills were used in the previous centuries.

· Other uses of windmills in Holland are corn milling and saw milling. Over the years, the use of windmills has changed. Though still used for drainage, they are predominantly considered as tourist attractions.

· Holland makes up roughly 13 percent of The Netherlands.

· The country has over 4,400 km of navigable rivers, canals and lakes.

· The inhabitants of Holland are best known for their unique and colorful costumes. One can easily find people wearing their traditional costumes - a culture inherited from their ancestors. They often accessorize their costume with a pair of wooden shoes.

· Talking about the eating habits, Dutch cuisine is renowned in the world for its rich taste and aroma. Potato is the prime ingredient for a number of traditional Dutch recipes. Holland is also known for its wide variety of cheese.

· Holland is 6.7 meters below sea level, at its lowest point, which is a polder near Rotterdam.

· The country was one of the six founding members of the European Community.

· Holland is quite often termed as a ‘land of compromise’, as it always has a coalition government.

· Horticulture and greenhouse agri-businesses are abundant in the arable lands of Holland.

· Holland is the third largest exporter of agricultural produce, after U.S. and France, even though only 3% of the Dutch population is employed in the agriculture sector.

· Geography in the region is very dynamic. This is the reason why the land occupied by Holland has never been stable.

· Rhine and the Meuse (Maas) are the main rivers of Holland.

· Until the 9th century, Frisians occupied the present-day Holland.

· As many as 300 castles in the country are open to the public.

· St. Lucia's flood in 1287 which affected both Holland and Germany, killed more than 50,000 people which is considered to be one of the most cataclysmic floods in the human history.

· Holland became a constitutional monarchy in 1815 and more than three decades later in 1848 it became a parliamentary democracy. Holland is a multi-party democracy but since the 19th century no party has been able to attain absolute majority and hence coalition governments have been running the country.

· The war between Holland and Japan ensued on 8th December 1941. Netherland met defeat and lost one of its strongholds Indonesia to the Japanese army in March 1942.

· Holland appeared at the first spot in the list of the "happiest" country published by the OECD.

· Though Holland remained neutral during the Second World War, on the 10th of May, 1940 the country was invaded by the Nazi Germany.

· Netherlands became the first country to legalize same sex marriages in 2001.

· Almost 20% of the entire area in Netherlands is below sea level. 21% of its entire population lives below sea level. This has made them the world experts on keeping back water from the sea and rivers. The United States turned to the Dutch asking for help with this during the Katrina disaster.

· In many European languages Netherlands mean “Low Land” or “Low Countries”.

· Netherlands is also known as the land of Giants. This is because Dutch are the world’s tallest people with an average height of 184cm for men and 170cm for women.

· In Netherlands you can not purchase grave space because of the short supply. Instead you have to lease the space for 10, 15 or 20 years.

· Netherlands is the largest exporter of Cheese.

· Dutch cheese was selected to be the best cheese by 40 judges from 17 countries who tasted 2500 verities of cheeses in the 2012 World Cheese Making Contest held in the US.

· Although Netherlands is called the land of Tulips, Tulips are not originated from there. The first Tulip bulbs are said to be imported from Turkey.

· Netherlands is known as the bicycle capital of the world. It has over 18 million bicycles which is more than one per person.

· Netherlands has the oldest tri-color flag. It dates back to 1572.

· Dutch were the first Europeans to discover Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand is named after the Province of Zealand.

· Over 25% of the entire Dutch population are registered to one of the 35,000 sports clubs in the country.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (/ˈrɛmbrænt, -brɑːnt/;[2] Dutch: [ˈrɛmbrɑnt ˈɦɑrmə(n)soːn vɑn ˈrɛin] ( listen); 15 July 1606[1] – 4 October 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art and the most important in Dutch history.[3] His contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the Dutch Golden Age when Dutch Golden Age painting, although in many ways antithetical to the Baroque style that dominated Europe, was extremely prolific and innovative, and gave rise to important new genres in painting.

Having achieved youthful success as a portrait painter, Rembrandt's later years were marked by personal tragedy and financial hardships. Yet his etchings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime, his reputation as an artist remained high,[4] and for twenty years he taught many important Dutch painters.[5] Rembrandt's greatest creative triumphs are exemplified especially in his portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits and illustrations of scenes from the Bible. His self-portraits form a unique and intimate biography, in which the artist surveyed himself without vanity and with the utmost sincerity.[3]

In his paintings and prints he exhibited knowledge of classical iconography, which he molded to fit the requirements of his own experience; thus, the depiction of a biblical scene was informed by Rembrandt's knowledge of the specific text, his assimilation of classical composition, and his observations of Amsterdam's Jewish population.[6] Because of his empathy for the human condition, he has been called "one of the great prophets of civilization."[7]

The Night Watch is a 1642 painting by Rembrandt van Rijn. It is prominently displayed in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, as the best known painting in its collection. The Night Watch is a world renowned example of Baroque art. The painting is renowned for three characteristics: its colossal size (363 cm × 437 cm (11.91 ft × 14.34 ft)), the effective use of light and shadow (chiaroscuro), and the perception of motion in what would have traditionally been a static military portrait.

Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (relief) in the metal.[1] In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types of material. As a method of printmaking, it is, along with engraving, the most important technique for old master prints, and remains in wide use today.

Date: 2016-01-05; view: 532