Peace Palace

The Peace Palace is an imposing structure of red brick, sandstone, and granite, distinguished by its mix of architectural styles and its prominent clock tower. It exists because of a grand, early twentieth-century ambition to replace the battlefield with the courtroom. Following the First Hague Peace Conference in eighteen ninety-nine, the need for a dedicated home for the Permanent Court of Arbitration became clear. Andrew Carnegie, then among the wealthiest men in the world, provided one and a half million dollars to finance the project.