| Flag size | 120x100px |
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| Image shield | Arms Leiden.jpg |
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| Shield size | 120x100px |
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| Coordinates region | NL |
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| Subdivision type | Country |
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| Subdivision name | Netherlands |
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| Subdivision type1 | Province |
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| Subdivision name1 | South Holland |
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| Leader title | Mayor |
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| Leader name | Henri Lenferink |
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| Area footnotes | (2006) |
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| Area total km2 | 23.16 |
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| Area land km2 | 21.99 |
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| Area water km2 | 1.16 |
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| Population as of | 30 November 2008 |
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| Population note | Source: CBS, Statline. |
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| Settlement type | Municipality |
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| Population total | |
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| Population density km2 | auto |
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| Timezone | CET |
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| Utc offset | +1 |
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| Timezone dst | CEST |
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| Utc offset dst | +2 |
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| Latns | N |
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| Longew | E |
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| Postal code type | Post code range |
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| Postal code | 2300-2334 |
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| Area code | 071 |
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| Website | www.leiden.nl |
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Leiden ( ['laɪ.dən]) (in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the Dutch province of South Holland. The municipality of Leiden has a population of about 120,000, but the city forms one densily connected urban area with its suburbs Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp, Voorschoten, Valkenburg, Rijnsburg and Katwijk, which has about 254,000 inhabitants combined. The larger Leiden agglomeration counts 332,000 inhabitants which makes it the sixth major agglomeration in the Netherlands. Leiden is located on the Old Rhine, at a distance of some 20 kilometers from The Hague to its south and some 40 kilometers from Amsterdam to its north. The recreational area of the Kaag Lakes (Kagerplassen) lies just to the northeast of Leiden.
A university city since 1575, Leiden houses Leiden University and Leiden University Medical Centre. It is twinned with Oxford, the location of England's oldest university.
History
Although it is true that Leiden is an old city, its claimed connection with
Roman Lugdunum Batavorum is spurious; Roman Lugdunum is actually near the close-by suburb of
Katwijk, whereas the Roman settlement near modern Leiden was called
Matilo. However, there was a Roman fortress in Leiden in the 4th century.
Leiden formed on an artificial hill (today called the Burcht van Leiden) at the confluence of the rivers Oude and Nieuwe Rijn (Old and New Rhine). In the oldest reference to this, from circa 860, the settlement was called Leithon. The landlord of Leiden, situated in a stronghold on the hill, was initially subject to the Bishop of Utrecht but around 1100 the burgraves became subject to the county of Holland. This county got its name in 1101 from a domain near the stronghold: Holtland or Holland.
Leiden was sacked in 1047 by Emperor Henry III. Early 13th century, Ada, Countess of Holland took refuge here when she was fighting in a civil war against her uncle, William I, Count of Holland. He besieged the stronghold and captured Ada.
Leiden received city rights in 1266. In 1389, its population had grown to about 4000 persons.
Siege of 1420
In 1420, during the
Hook and Cod wars,
Duke John of Bavaria along with his army marched from
Gouda in the direction of Leiden in order to conquer the city since Leiden did not pay the new
Count of Holland Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut, his niece and only daughter of
Count William VI of Holland. The army was well equipped and had some guns.
Burgrave Filips of Wassenaar and the other local Hoekse noblemen assumed that the duke would besiege Leiden first and send small units out to conquer the surrounding citadels. But John of Bavaria chose to attack the citadels first.
He rolled the cannons with his army but one too heavy went per ship. By firing at the walls and gates with iron balls the citadels fell one by one. Within a week John of Bavaria conquered the castles of Poelgeest, Ter Does, Hoichmade, de Zijl, ter Waerd, Warmond and de Paddenpoel.
On 24 June the army appeared before the walls of Leiden. On 17 August 1420, after a two-month siege the city surrendered to John of Bavaria. The burgrave Filips of Wassenaar was stripped of his offices and rights and lived out his last years in captivity.
16th and 18th centuries
:
Relief of Leiden (1574), Inundated meadows allow the Dutch fleet access to the Spanish infantry positions.]]
Leiden flourished in the 16th and 17th century. At the close of the 15th century the
weaving establishments (mainly
broadcloth) of Leiden were very important, and after the expulsion of the Spaniards Leiden
cloth, Leiden
baize and Leiden
camlet were familiar terms. In the same period, Leiden developed an important printing and publishing industry. The influential printer
Christoffel Plantijn lived there at one time. One of his pupils was
Lodewijk Elzevir (1547–1617), who established the largest bookshop and printing works in Leiden, a business continued by
his descendants through 1712 and the name subsequently adopted (in a variant spelling) by contemporary publisher
Elsevier.
In 1572, the city sided with the Dutch revolt against Spanish rule and played an important role in the Eighty Years' War. Besieged from May until October 1574 by the Spanish, Leiden was relieved by the cutting of the dikes, thus enabling ships to carry provisions to the inhabitants of the flooded town. As a reward for the heroic defence of the previous year, the University of Leiden was founded by William I of Orange in 1575. Yearly on 3 October, the end of the siege is still celebrated in Leiden. Tradition tells that the citizens were offered the choice between a university and a certain exemption from taxes and chose the university. The siege is notable also for being the first instance in Europe of the issuance of paper money, with paper taken from prayer books being stamped using coin dies when silver ran out.
Leiden is also known as the place where the Pilgrims (as well as some of the first settlers of New Amsterdam) lived (and operated a printing press) for a time in the early 17th century before their departure to Massachusetts and New Amsterdam in the New World.
In the 17th century, Leiden prospered, in part because of the impetus to the textile industry by refugees from Flanders. While the city had lost about a third of its 15,000 citizens during the siege of 1574, it quickly recovered to 45,000 inhabitants in 1622, and may have come near to 70,000 circa 1670. During the Dutch Golden Era, Leiden was the second largest city of Holland, after Amsterdam.
From the late 17th century onwards Leiden slumped, mainly because of decline of the cloth industries. In the beginning of the 19th century the baize manufacture was altogether given up, although industry remained central to Leiden economy. This decline is painted vividly by the fall in population. The population of Leiden had sunk to 30,000 between 1796 and 1811, and in 1904 was 56,044.
From 17th to early 19th century, Leiden was the publishing place of one of the most important contemporary journals, Nouvelles Extraordinaires de Divers Endroits, known also as Gazette de Leyde.
19th and 20th century
printing office, Leiden]]
On 12 January 1807, a catastrophe struck the city when a boat loaded with 17,400 kg of gunpowder blew up in the middle of Leiden. 151 persons were killed, over 2000 were injured and some 220 homes were destroyed. King
Louis Bonaparte personally visited the city to provide assistance to the victims. Although located in the center of the city, the area destroyed remained empty for many years. In 1886 the space was turned into a public park.
In 1842, the railroad from Leiden to Haarlem was inaugurated and one year later the railway to Den Haag was completed, resulting in some social and economic improvement.
Leiden's reputation as the "city of books" continued through the 19th century with the establishment of publishing dynasties by Evert Jan Brill and Albertus Willem Sijthoff. Sijthoff, who rose to prominence in the trade of translated books, wrote a letter in 1899 to Queen Wilhelmina regarding his opposition to becoming a signatory to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. He felt that international copyright restrictions would stifle the Dutch publishing industry.
Leiden began to expand beyond its 17th century moats around 1896 and the number of citizens surpassed 50,000 in 1900. After 1920, new industries were established in the city, such as the canning and metal industries. During World War II, Leiden was hit hard by Allied bombardments. The areas surrounding the railway station and Marewijk were almost completely destroyed.
Leiden today
Today Leiden forms an important part of Dutch history. The end of the Spanish siege in 1574 is celebrated on 3 October by an annual parade, a day off, a fair and eating the traditional food of herring and white bread and
hutspot. However, the most important piece of Dutch history contributed by Leiden was the
Constitution of the Netherlands.
Johan Rudolf Thorbecke (1798–1872) wrote the Dutch Constitution in April 1848 in his house at Garenmarkt 9 in Leiden.
Leiden has important functions as a shopping and trade center for communities around the city. The University of Leiden is famous for its many developments including the famous Leyden jar, a capacitor made from a glass jar, invented in Leiden by Pieter van Musschenbroek in 1746. Another development was in cryogenics: Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1913 Nobel prize winner in physics) liquefied helium for the first time (1908) and later managed to reach a temperature of less than one degree above the absolute minimum. Albert Einstein also spent some time at Leiden University during his early to middle career.
The city also houses the Eurotransplant, the international organization responsible for the mediation and allocation of organ donation procedures in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Slovenia.
Rivers, canals and parks
at night, also chimney of the
Light Factory]]
The two branches of the
Old Rhine, which enter Leiden on the east, unite in the centre of the town. The town is further intersected by numerous small
canals with tree-bordered
quays. On the west side of the town, the
Hortus Botanicus and other gardens extend along the old
Singel, or outer canal. The
Leidse Hout park, which contains a small deer park, lies on the northwest boarder with
Oegstgeest. The
Van der Werf Park is named after the mayor
Pieter Adriaansz van der Werf, who defended the town against the Spaniards in 1574. The town was beleaguered for months and many died from famine. According to legend van der Werf was accused by a frantic crowd of secretly hiding food reserves. He denied this vehemently and to prove his sincerity offered to cut off his arm to serve as food for those who nearly died from famine. This made people back off, ashamed of their mistrust. The open space for the park was formed by the accidental
explosion of a ship loaded with
gunpowder in 1807, which destroyed hundreds of houses, including that of the
Elsevier family of
printers.
Buildings of interest
Because of the economic decline from the 17th to the early 20th century, much of the 16th and 17th century town centre is still intact. It's reportedly the second largest 17th century town centre in the Netherlands, the largest being Amsterdam's town centre.
Fortifications
At the strategically important junction of the two arms of the Old Rhine stands the old
castle De Burcht, a circular tower built on an earthen mound. The mound probably was a refuge against high water before a small wooden fortress was built on top of it in the 11th century. The citadel is a so-called
motte-and-bailey castle. Of Leiden's old
city gates only two are left, the
Zijlpoort and the
Morspoort, both dating from the end of the 17th century. Apart from one small watch tower on the Singel nothing is left of the town's
city walls. Another former
fortification is the
Gravensteen. Built as a
fortress in the 13th century it has since served as house, library and prison. Presently it is one of the University's buildings.
Churches
, Leiden]]
The chief of Leiden's numerous
churches are the
Hooglandse Kerk (or the church of
St Pancras, built in the 15th century and containing a monument to
Pieter Adriaansz van der Werf) and the
Pieterskerk (church of
St Peter (1315) with monuments to
Scaliger,
Boerhaave and other famous scholars. From a historical perspective the
Marekerk is interesting too.
Arent van 's Gravesande designed the church in 1639. Other fine examples of his work in Leiden are in the
Stedelijk Museum De Lakenhal (the municipal museum of fine arts), and the
Bibliotheca Thysiana. The growing town needed another church and the
Marekerk was the first church to be built in Leiden (and in Holland) after the
Reformation. It is an example of
Dutch Classicism. In the drawings by Van 's Gravesande the
pulpit is the centrepiece of the church. The pulpit is modelled after the one in the
Nieuwe Kerk at
Haarlem (designed by
Jacob van Campen). The building was first used in 1650, and is still in use.
University buildings
, during restoration (2010)]]
The town centre contains many buildings that are in use by the
University of Leiden. The
Academy Building is housed in a former 16th century
convent. Among the institutions connected with the university are the national institution for East Indian languages,
ethnology and
geography; the
botanical gardens, founded in 1587; the
observatory (1860); the museum of antiquities (
Rijksmuseum van Oudheden); and the
ethnographical museum, of which
P. F. von Siebold's
Japanese collections was the nucleus (
Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde). The
Bibliotheca Thysiana occupies an old
Renaissance building of the year 1655. It is especially rich in legal works and
vernacular chronicles. Noteworthy are also the many special collections at
Leiden University Library among which those of the
Society of Dutch Literature (1766) and the collection of casts and engravings. In recent years the university has built the
Bio Science Park at the city's outskirts to accommodate the Science departments.
Other buildings
Some other interesting buildings are the town hall (
Stadhuis), a 16th century building that was badly damaged by a fire in 1929 but has its Renaissance facade designed by
Lieven de Key still standing; the
Gemeenlandshuis van Rijnland (1596, restored in 1878);
De Waag (
weigh house in
Dutch), built by
Pieter Post; the former court-house (
Gerecht); a corn-grinding windmill, now home to a museum (
Molen de Valk) (1743); the old
gymnasium (
Latijnse School) (1599) and the city carpenter's yard and
wharf (
Stadstimmerwerf) (1612), both built by
Lieven de Key (c. 1560–1627). Another building of interest is the "pesthuis", which was built at that time just outside the city for curing patients suffering the
bubonic plague. However, after it was built the feared disease did not occur in the Netherlands anymore so it was never used for its original purpose, it now serves as the entrance of
Naturalis, one of the largest
natural history museums in the world. Oudt Leyden, the so called oldest pancake house (
pannekoekenhuis in Dutch) in the world is home to its famous large pancakes and
Delft crockery, it's also known for serving the likes of
Winston Churchill and the
Dalai Lama.
Public transport
Bus lines
Connexxion Region West:
Bus stops and lines in Leiden: (links to schedules by stop and line)
Bus lines with schedules by line in the region
Railway
Railway stations: Leiden Centraal, Leiden Lammenschans, De Vink
To plan a train journey follow the link
Leiden is on the planned route of the RijnGouweLijn, the Netherland's first Light rail project. Within Leiden its route would have been: Leiden Lammenschans - Lammenschansweg - Oranjeboomstraat - sint Jorissteeg - Watersteeg - Hooigracht - Pelikaanstraat - Klokpoort - Langegracht - Lammermarkt - Molenwerf - Schuttersveld - Station Leiden Centraal (stationsplein zijde) - Albinusdreef (LUMC) - Sandfortdreef - Zernikedreef (Hogeschool) - (Einsteinweg) - Van Beuningenlaan - Ehrenfestweg - Transferium A44.
Famous inhabitants
:
See also People from Leiden
The following is a selection of important
Leidenaren throughout history:
Rembrandt van Rijn, 1606–1669, painter.
Ludolph van Ceulen, 1540–1610, mathematician, computed Pi.
Marinus van der Lubbe, 1909–1934, accused of setting fire to the Reichstag in Berlin.
Herman Boerhaave, 1668–1738, humanist and physician.
Jan Steen, 1626–1679, painter.
Gegard Mousasi, 1985-, Professional MMA fighter of Armenian descent.
Johann Bachstrom, 1688–1742, writer, scientist and Lutheran theologian.
Bernhard Siegfried Albinus, 1697–1770, anatomist.
Love Brewster, 1611-1650/1, pilgrim.
William Brewster, 1567–1644, pilgrim.
William Bradford, 1590-1657, pilgrim, leader of the American Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.
Gerard Dou, 1613–1675, painter.
Jouke de Vries, 1960, professor at Leiden university, runner-up candidate for the PVDA elections in 2002 (lost to Wouter Bos), currently resides at Leiden.
Cornelius Engelbrechtszoon, 1468–1533, painter.
Jan van Goyen, 1596–1656, painter.
John of Leiden, 1509?–1536, leader of the Anabaptist Münster Rebellion.
Philipp Franz Bathasar von Siebold, 1796-1866, physician, collector, 'Japanologist'.
Lucas van Leyden, 1494–1533, engraver and painter.
Gabriel Metsu, 1629–1667, painter.
Frans Post, 1612–1680, painter.
Pieter de Ring, ca 1615-1660, painter
Theo van Doesburg, 1883–1931, painter, architect, writer.
Willebrord Snell, 1580–1626, astronomer and mathematician.
Johannes Diderik van der Waals, 1837–1923, physicist.
Hendrik Lorentz, 1853–1928, physicist.
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, 1853–1926, physicist.
Pieter Zeeman, 1865–1943, physicist.
Willem de Sitter, 1872–1934, mathematician, physicist, astronomer.
Paul Ehrenfest, 1880–1933, physicist.
Hendrik Casimir, 1909–2000, physicist.
Jan Hendrik Oort, 1900–1992, astronomer.
Willem Einthoven, 1860–1927, physician, physiologist.
Pieter Adriaanszoon van der Werff, 1529–1604, mayor of Leiden.
William II, 1228–1256, count of Holland, later also king of Germany.
Gottfried van Swieten, 1733-1803, diplomat, friendship and collaboration with several great composers.
Nina Foch, 1924-2008, actress/ acting teacher.
Armin Van Buuren, 1976-, music/ DJ.
Town twinning
Leiden's
twin towns are:
East London,
South Africa
Juigalpa,
Nicaragua
Krefeld,
Germany
Oxford,
England (
United Kingdom)
Toruń,
Poland
Miscellaneous
The coat of arms of Leiden is two red keys, crossed in an X-shape on a white background. These keys are those to the gates of heaven held by St.Peter, for whom a large church in the city center is named. By this coat of arms, in Dutch, sometimes Leiden is referred to as the "Sleutelstad" of "the key city".
For a time Leiden held the title "The Coldest Place on Earth": in a laboratory, because of the developments in cryogenics that have happened there. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1913 Nobel prize winner in physics) liquefied helium for the first time (1908), and later managed to reach a temperature of less than one degree above Absolute zero.
The Norwegian cheese "nøkkelost" ("key cheese") is named after the keys in coat of arms of Leyden, as it is a variation of Leyden cheese.
The following places and things are named after this city:
* Leyden, New York, USA
* Leyden, Massachusetts, USA
* Leyden High School District 212 in Franklin Park, Illinois, USA.
* Leiden scale, for measuring extreme low temperatures.
* Factor V Leiden is named after the city of Leiden where it was discovered in 1994.
* The Leyden jar, a capacitor made from a glass jar, was invented here by Pieter van Musschenbroek in 1746. It was actually first invented by Ewald Georg von Kleist the year before, but the name "Leyden jar" stuck.
Leiden is connected with the area of Wassenaar and The Hague by a bicycle lane that since 2010 is called the "Velostrada"
See also
Wireless Leiden
Leiden Classical A distributed computing project
References
External links
Official site
Discover the Leiden Loop on your computer
Discover the Leiden Loop on your mobile phone
The historic highlights of Leiden (in Dutch)
360 degree panoramas of Leiden
Photos taken in Leiden (on Flickr)
Municipality guide (in Dutch)
Map showing the neighborhoods and the grouping into quarters (districts) and the town parts Noord, Midden, West and Zuid (pdf) (note that one quarter is partly in one town part, partly in another one)
Statistics in Dutch (pdf) - with (towards the end) a map showing the neighborhoods and (a few pages further) the population figures etc. as well as the grouping into quarters
leiden.boogolinks.nl
City plan
Leiden.NU: Cultural site + Agenda
Pictures of Leiden
Tall buildings in Leiden
Leiden CityPoem and about the Leiden City Wall Poem project
Matilo
Entries for Leiden in Gazetteers: Alexandria Digital Library Getty Thesaurus Global Gazetteer Tageo World Gazetteer
Museums and libraries
Stedelijk Museum de Lakenhal Municipal Museum
Rijksmuseum van Oudheden National Museum of Antiquities
Naturalis National Museum of Natural History
Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde National Museum of Ethnology
Museum Boerhaave Museum Boerhaave National Museum of the History of Science and Medicine
Molen de Valk (site in Dutch) Museum Windmill
Hortus Botanicus Hortus Botanicus Leiden
Leiden American Pilgrim Museum of the historical Pilgrims of early 17th C. New England
Penningkabinet National Museum of Coins and Medals
Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden Leiden University Library
Siebold House
CORPUS Opened on March 14 2008.
Region
map
Adjacent municipalities
Clockwise:
Oegstgeest
Teylingen
Leiderdorp
Zoeterwoude
Leidschendam-Voorburg
Voorschoten
Wassenaar
Katwijk
Category:Leiden
Category:Municipalities of South Holland
Category:Populated places in South Holland
Category:University towns in the Netherlands
