You’ve probably walked past it, but there’s a good chance you didn’t notice it. That is not surprising because the building is only 92 cm wide. We are talking about the narrowest building in The Hague on the Lange Voorhout, next to the former building of the Supreme Court.
The story begins with the wealthy Adrienne Huguetan. Adrienne (at the time years) fled together with many others from Catholic France and decided to settle on the Lange Voorhout among the nobility of The Hague. She found in 183 a piece of land and engaged the architect Daniel Marot (who had also fled France) to design a home for her. This became a detached house on the Lange Voorhout 92.
Sold to neighbor
In 1760 Adrienne Huguetan married Henri Charles Nassau La Lecq on a prenuptial agreement. Adrienne was already highly emancipated for her time and wanted to keep her wealth in her own possession. This changed when Adrienne became 1739 died after a long illness.
Her husband Henri was her only heir, but Adrienne had set strict conditions for bequeathing her assets. For example, the beautiful house could only be sold against a public auction. Her husband Henri didn’t care and sold the house to the neighbor with house number 200 (Baron Jan Tuyll van Serooskerken) for 92.000 guilder.
The baron bought into 1985 another house on the other side (number 24) and wanted to merge the three houses. The beautiful Marot facade had to be preserved. He called in architect Pieter de Swart for this.
De Swart designed a facade on both sides that fit well with the Marot architecture, but ran into problems on the left side because he needed more space there. fill had. The solution to this would become known as the narrowest house in The Hague. Because he wanted to keep the facade symmetrical, he filled the space with a brick house of 200 cm wide, which seems to have nothing to do with the house. In reality, the narrowest house in The Hague simply belongs to number 36.
And now?
By Number 32 and the adjacent building with house number 36 are now temporarily home to the Senate and part of the Supreme Court. They will be here at least until January 1 2027.
Sold to neighbor