Event: Netherlands

Mauritshuis

When:	Daily; not Mon
Where:	Mauritshuis
Costs:	€9.50; seniors €4.75; under 18s free; more during special exhibitions
Opening Hours:	Tue-Sat 10am-5pm; Sun 11am-5pm

The Mauritshuis in the Hague is the most dazzling small museum in Holland. It specialises in 15th to 18th century Dutch and Flemish art - a golden age for these countries' painters. Housed in a perfectly preserved former aristocratic home of the 1640s, the collection includes masterpieces by Vermeer, Rembrandt and Franz Hals.

The house was first built for the governor general of Dutch Brazil, Johan Maurits, and is of immense architectural significance, providing the prototypical form for a classicised town house that would influence buildings across Europe. The style was picked up by Sir Roger Pratt in England and literally transformed the look of the English country home.

The Mauritshuis' art collection is known as "The Royal Cabinet of Paintings" and is one of the most famous in the world. It is perhaps the Vermeers that are most impressive: there are only 35 in existence and this museum has a roomful. They include the sumptuous View of Delft (1660-1661) and his most famous work, Young Girl with Turban (1665-1666), which is one of the most beautiful, most understated portraits ever painted.

The Rembrandts round the corner are also pretty stunning, amongst them the dramatic chiaroscuro of The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp (1632), and the Mauritshuis also has an ongoing programme of temporary exhibitions.