Leiden
City of discoveries, city of water.
Home to the oldest university of the Netherlands. The place where Rembrandt was born.
Leiden
Places of interest
Leiden University
In 1575, Leiden had the distinction of becoming the first city in the northern Netherlands to have a university.
Legend has it that the university was a reward for the heroic resistance to the Spanish occupation.
The Canals
Apart form Amsterdam, the city of Leiden has the largest number of city canals in the Netherlands.
The city is also admidst an area of beautiful lakes and pools.
The Koornbrug
On this bridge, as the name says, the wheat was traded for centuries.
To keep things dry, a roof was built in 1834, making this bridge not the only but the oldest covered bridge.
The Burcht
The Burcht van Leiden is one of the oldest surviving examples of a castle in the Netherlands.
The Morspoort
Leiden once had ten city gates, two of which are now left. The other gates were demolished in the 19th century with urban expansions.
Almshouses
Spread across the city centre, 35 almshouses are waiting to be discovered, seemingly frozen in time.
Enter these almshouses, a collection of small dwellings built around a communal garden, often walled and accessible only by 1 or 2 access ways.
Museums
De Lakenhal
Not everyone knows that Rembrandt van Rijn, the world-famous artist from the Dutch Golden Age, was born in Leiden.
Already at the opening of Museum De Lakenhal in 1874, it was regarded as highly regrettable that not a single painting of Leiden's most famous son was on display.
Only in 2012, this was finally redeemed.
In that year, Museum De Lakenhal succeeded in buying a painting by Rembrandt - and even a painting from the earliest period of his career, when he still lived and worked in Leiden.
Hortus Botanicus
The Hortus botanicus Leiden is the oldest botanical garden in The Netherlands. The oldest section of the Hortus, dating back to 1590, is the current Front Garden.
It has been renovated with new plants and in 2000, a new glasshouse was added to form the Winter Garden.
The Clusius Garden gives an impression of what the Hortus was like around 1600, when the bonds between the Netherlands and Asia were formed.
The exchange of plants and knowledge between these cultures can be seen in the Japanese Garden.
Discover the true story of Willem of Orange, get up close and personal with Johannes Vermeer, and see how the world-famous Delft Blue ceramics are made.
the seat of the country's government, and home to the Royal Family.
Two of the other main universities in the Low Countries.