Library Tours

The Library Tour is an activity that helps you become familiar with the Library’s space, services and resources. It’s available for groups only. By coming on a tour, we hope you discover our history, collections and architecture on a tour of the public areas of the Library. The tour includes a visit to our state-of-the-art Reading Room, the Grotius Room and the Historical Reading Room. Find out how books are stored, accessed and delivered. Tours may also include a visit to the closed stacks and the Grotius collection upon request.

Library Tours are provided by the Library Staff and are primarily intended for groups of (potential) Users, diplomats, delegations, interns and staff members of international organizations, librarians and law faculty groups visiting the international tribunals in The Hague.

Tours last approximately 60 minutes and leave from the Security Gate of the Peace Palace. Library Instruction can be included in the programme.

Advance booking is recommended. For inquiries, please send an email to library@peacepalace.org.

Peace Palace Tours

Please note that Library Tours do not include the Peace Palace or its gardens. Guided tours inside the Palace, garden tours and educational activities are organized by the Carnegie Foundation. A tour guide will show you around the building and inform you of the legal institutions housed in the Peace Palace. A tour through the Great Hall of Justice, the Small Courtroom, the corridors and the Japanese Room will give you an impression of the most beautiful rooms of the Palace. On some weekends throughout the year and for a couple of weeks in summer, the doors of the Palace are open to the public.

For more information, please click here.

Peace Palace Visitors Centre

You are very welcome to visit the Visitors Centre. A modern exhibition and an impressive film give you an introduction of 35-40 minutes to the founding history of the Peace Palace and to the judicial institutions based there. The information is available through an audio tour in ten languages: English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Italian, Portuguese and German.

For more information, please click here.