Vibrant and inspiring
Discover Leiden
Leiden city centre is vibrant and a huge source of inspiration. We motivate our guests to discover our city and breathe in the surroundings. An inspired person is a powerful person.
Discover Leiden
Explore the city and breathe in the surroundings.
Art and history: museum De Lakenhal.
Museum De Lakenhal inspires, connects and innovates. In the museum, whose name reminds us of Leiden's cloth industry, famous and unknown masters are in the spotlight, including Lucas van Leyden, Rembrandt and more of his contemporaries.
In addition to fine art, crafts are also featured and there is a focus on Leiden's illustrious history. With a collection of showpieces and temporary exhibitions, a visit to the Lakenhal will enrich your visit to Leiden. Before visiting, be sure to check the website as the museum regularly has playful promotions such as a free museum visit, workshops or "Lakenhal laat" where you can visit Museum De Lakenhal every second Friday of the month "between work and the pub" for a good dose of inspiration and knowledge.
Experience the green world of the Hortus.
The Hortus botanicus is the oldest botanical garden in the Netherlands, belonging to Leiden University. And if you ask us, also the most beautiful botanical garden in the Netherlands. The garden was established in 1590 to propagate and grow unusual plants and to conduct research on them. But the garden was also immediately opened to the public, which was very special in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Today, the garden forms the green heart of the city with many special and very old plants, including an exceptional collection from Japan and China. Carolus Clusius grew Europe's first large tulip collection here. Researchers and curious visitors come here every year to see and examine the extraordinary collection. The Hortus is also the place for a quiet walk or a little break in the greenery.
Travelling through time at the National Museum of Antiquities.
There's plenty to experience at the National Museum of Antiquities. The archaeological museum about ancient Egypt and Near East, the Classical world and the Netherlands in prehistoric and Roman times. Goddess Nehalennia, Tutankhamun and the hero of the Trojan War Achilles, you will meet them in this museum.
With a permanent collection of masterpieces and temporary exhibitions that attract attention from all over the world, you will travel back in time to the world of ancient civilizations. The building itself, a monumental mansion on the Rapenburg, is also well worth seeing.
Walking in the world of Rembrandt.
The canals, the windmills and the bridges, Leiden is picturesquely beautiful. So it is perhaps no surprise that this is where Rembrandt van Rijn started painting. In the city centre, you can still find places that played an important role in his early life and career, such as his birth home, the studio of his teacher Jacob van Swanenburg and the Latin school he attended as a young boy.
The municipality of Leiden and the VVV Tourist Office offer a "unique walk in the footsteps of the most famous grandmaster of the Golden Age that connects all historic Rembrandt locations." The Rembrandt Route is available at the VVV Leiden Tourist Office or via the webshop.
More information about the Rembrandt Route can be found on Visit Leiden or via the VVV office.
The university and student life.
The oldest university in the Netherlands, founded in 1575 by William of Orange, produced 16 Nobel laureates. Our King Willem-Alexander also spent his student years at Rapenburg. The university still determines part of the city's identity and makes Leiden a vibrant student city with many places to eat and drink. From a simple student meal to elaborate dining. Everything is possible.
Walking through the city centre, you can recognise the student houses by the many bikes in front of the door and the students sitting in the benches in front of the canal houses as soon as the weather permits. At exam time, students crowd around the square in front of the university library or find a spot in the sun in the Hortus Botanicus. During a walk, be sure to check out the Rapenburg, the Academy Building, the Hortus, Minerva society, the Witte Singel and Museum Boerhaave to get an idea of student life and the world of science.
