Leiden

Leiden grew around an artificial mound, the Burcht, where the Old and New Rhine meet; a wooden fortress was built on it in the 11th century, and the settlement was called Leithon, after a Germanic word for canal. In the Hook and Cod wars it fell in 1420 after a two-month siege by John of Bavaria. By the end of the 15th century its broadcloth weavers made it an important industrial town, and printing and publishing followed, led later by the Elzevir family.

The city sided with the Dutch Revolt in 1572 and was besieged by Spanish forces from May to October 1574. About a third of its 15,000 people died before the dykes were cut and rebel ships sailed over the flooded land with food; during the siege paper taken from prayer books was stamped as emergency money. William of Orange rewarded Leiden with a university in 1575. Flemish refugees then revived the textile trade, the population climbed to around 70,000 by about 1670, and Leiden became the second city of Holland. The English Pilgrims lived here for more than a decade before leaving in 1620 for Delfshaven and America.

From the late 17th century the textile industry declined and the city shrank, which left much of its 16th- and 17th-century centre intact. On 12 January 1807 a boat loaded with gunpowder exploded in the middle of town, killing 151 people; the empty site later became the Van der Werff park. Railways arrived in 1842–43, Johan Rudolf Thorbecke drafted the Dutch constitution in his Leiden house in 1848, and the city expanded beyond its moats from the 1890s. Allied bombing in the Second World War destroyed the area around the station.

The university shapes everything. Leiden calls itself the City of Discoveries: Snell's law of refraction and the Leyden jar were developed here, Herman Boerhaave pioneered modern medical teaching in the early 18th century, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes first liquefied helium in 1908, and Albert Einstein spent time at the university. Its alumni include members of the royal family and ten prime ministers, and around 35,000 students at the university and the city's college of applied sciences give the streets a young, international feel.

Leiden is also a painters' city. Rembrandt was born and educated here, and Lucas van Leyden, Jan van Goyen, Jan Steen, Gerard Dou and Frans van Mieris were among its other painters; in the 20th century the De Stijl movement was founded in Leiden by Theo van Doesburg. A project begun in 1992 has painted more than 110 poems in many languages on the city's walls.

The great local celebration is 3 Oktober, marking the relief of 1574, observed since the 1500s. Over two or three days the city holds parades, historical re-enactments and a funfair; a hutspot feast is part of the festivities, and at dawn on the 3rd herring and white bread are handed out at the Waag. The Pilgrim connection gives American visitors a reason to seek out the Pieterskerk, where the Pilgrims' pastor John Robinson is buried.

The municipality had about 130,000 inhabitants at the start of 2026, but the city is joined to the suburbs of Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp, Voorschoten and Zoeterwoude in a built-up area of about 215,000. Of all Dutch cities above 100,000 people, Leiden has by far the smallest area, which makes it dense and compact, and the old centre has been extensively renovated since 2000.

Knowledge is the main industry, centred on Leiden University and the Leiden University Medical Center, and the Leiden Bio Science Park on the city's edge houses the university's science departments. The city also hosts Eurotransplant, which allocates donor organs across seven European countries, and the headquarters of Airbus, and it serves as the shopping centre for the surrounding towns.

Daily rhythms follow the academic year, with students cycling between scattered university buildings in the old centre and filling the bars. Leiden Centraal, one of the busiest stations in the country, handled about 83,000 passengers a day in 2019, many of them students who live elsewhere. Markets fill the centre on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Leiden's signature foods come from its siege. When the city was relieved on 3 October 1574, the supplies brought in were mostly herring and white bread — haring en wittebrood — and the pairing is still eaten in celebration every year. Hutspot, a mash of boiled potatoes, carrots and onions, is linked by tradition to the stew found in the abandoned Spanish camp and is eaten as part of the 3 October celebrations; the dish is also found in Indonesian cooking, a legacy of colonial ties.

The city also gave its name to a cheese. Leidse kaas, or Leyden, is a semi-hard cow's-milk cheese flavoured with cumin and caraway seeds, made on farms and in factories and historically in the Leiden area; round and flat like Gouda, it is the most common of the Netherlands' cumin cheeses.

Everyday eating follows the student city. The old centre is never short of bars and cafés, the Wednesday and Saturday markets sell produce in the centre, and the cafés around the Beestenmarkt serve passengers waiting for canal boats.