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Leiden

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Leiden
City and municipality
Rapenburg
Koornbrug
Koornbrug
Aalmarkt
Steenschuur
Steenschuur
Topographic map
Flag of Leiden
Flag
Coat of arms of Leiden
Coat of arms
Nickname: 
Sleutelstad (Key City)
Highlighted position of Leiden in a municipal map of South Holland
Location in South Holland
Leiden is located in Netherlands
Leiden
Leiden
Location within the Netherlands
Leiden is located in Europe
Leiden
Leiden
Location within Europe
Coordinates: 52°10′N 4°29′E / 52.16°N 4.49°E / 52.16; 4.49
Country Netherlands
Province South Holland
Government
[1]
 • BodyMunicipal council
 • MayorPeter van der Velden (PvdA)
Area
[2]
 • Municipality23.27 km2 (8.98 sq mi)
 • Land21.91 km2 (8.46 sq mi)
 • Water1.36 km2 (0.53 sq mi)
Elevation
[3]
0 m (0 ft)
Population
 (Municipality, January 2019; Urban and Metro, May 2014)[4][5]
 • Municipality124,899
 • Density5,701/km2 (14,770/sq mi)
 • Urban
238,493
 • Metro
344,299
DemonymLeidenaar
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Postcodes
2300–2334
Area code071
WebsiteOfficial website Edit this at Wikidata
Map
Click on the map for a fullscreen view

Leiden (/ˈlaɪdən/ LY-dən;[6] nl; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 127,046 (31 January 2023),[7] but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration with its suburbs Oegstgeest, Leiderdorp, Voorschoten and Zoeterwoude with 215,602 inhabitants. The Netherlands Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) further includes Katwijk in the agglomeration which makes the total population of the Leiden urban agglomeration 282,207 and in the larger Leiden urban area also Teylingen, Noordwijk, and Noordwijkerhout are included with in total 365,913 inhabitants. Leiden is located on the Oude Rijn, at a distance of some 20 km (12 mi) from The Hague to its south and some 40 km (25 mi) 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 has been one of Europe's most prominent scientific centres for more than four centuries. University buildings are scattered throughout the city and the many students from all over the world give the city a bustling, vivid and international atmosphere. Many important scientific discoveries have been made here, giving rise to Leiden's motto: 'City of Discoveries'. The city houses Leiden University, the oldest university of the Netherlands, and Leiden University Medical Center. Leiden University is one of Europe's top universities, with thirteen Nobel Prize winners. It is a member of the League of European Research Universities and positioned highly in all international academic rankings. It is twinned with Oxford, the location of the United Kingdom's oldest university. Leiden University and Leiden University of Applied Sciences (Leidse Hogeschool) together have around 35,000 students. Modern scientific medical research and teaching started in the early 18th century in Leiden with Boerhaave.

Leiden is a city with a rich cultural heritage, not only in science, but also in the arts. The painter Rembrandt was born and educated in Leiden. Other Leiden painters include Lucas van Leyden, Jan van Goyen and Jan Steen.

Leiden was 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). The settlement was called Leithon. The name is from Germanic *leitha (canal).[8]

Leiden has erroneously been associated with the Roman outpost Lugdunum Batavorum. This was thought to be located at the Burcht of Leiden, and the city's name was thought to be derived from the Latin name Lugdunum. However, the castellum was in fact closer to the town of Katwijk, whereas the Roman settlement near Leiden was called Matilo.[9]

Siege of 1420

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In 1420, during the Hook and Cod wars, Duke John III 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.

Burgrave Filips of Wassenaar and the other local noblemen of the Hook faction 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 along with his army but one which was too heavy went by 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 to 18th centuries

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Leiden flourished in the 16th and 17th century. At the close of the 15th century, the weaving establishments of Leiden (mainly broadcloth) were very important. In the same period, Leiden developed an important printing and publishing industry. Printers Lucas van Leyden and Otto van Veen lived here, and so did Christoffel Plantijn. One of Christoffel's pupils was Lodewijk Elzevir (1547–1617), who established the largest bookshop and printing works in Leiden, a business continued by his descendants through 1712.

Relief of Leiden (1574), painting by Otto van Veen. Inundated meadows allow the Dutch fleet access to the Spanish infantry positions.

In 1572, the city sided with the Dutch Revolt against Spanish rule and played an important role in the Eighty Years' War. It was besieged from May to October 1574 by the Spanish but was relieved by the cutting of the dikes, thus enabling ships to carry provisions to the inhabitants. William I of Orange founded the University of Leiden in 1575 as a reward for their heroic defense. The end of the siege is still celebrated in Leiden on October 3 each year. According to tradition, the citizens of Leiden 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.[10]

17th-century houses along the Oude Vest

Leiden is known as the place where the Pilgrims and some of the settlers of New Amsterdam[11][12] lived, operating a printing press[13] for a time in the early 17th century before their departure to Massachusetts and New Amsterdam in the New World.[14]

Leiden prospered in the 17th century, in part because of the impetus to the textile industry by refugees from Flanders. The city had lost about a third of its 15,000 citizens during the siege of 1574, but it quickly recovered to 45,000 in 1622 and may have come near to 70,000 c. 1670. During the Dutch Golden Era, Leiden was the second largest city of Holland after Amsterdam.[15] It played a crucial role in the establishment of modern chemistry and medicine due to the work by Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738).

Leiden slumped from the late 17th century on, mainly due to the decline of the textile industries. The baize manufacture was given up at the beginning of the 19th century, although industry remained central to Leiden economy. This decline can be seen in the fall in population, which had sunk to 30,000 between 1796 and 1811, and in 1904 was 56,044.[16]

Leiden was the publishing place from the 17th to the early 19th century of the important journal Nouvelles Extraordinaires de Divers Endroits, known also as Gazette de Leyde.[17]

19th and 20th centuries

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On 12 January 1807, a catastrophe struck the city when a boat loaded with 17,400 kg (38,360 lb) of gunpowder blew up in the middle of Leiden. 151 people were killed, over 2,000 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 centre of the city, the area destroyed remained empty for many years. In 1886 the space was turned into a public park, the Van der Werff park.[18]

In 1842, the railroad from Leiden to Haarlem was inaugurated and one year later the railway to The Hague (Den Haag) was completed, resulting in some social and economic improvement. Perhaps 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'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.[19] 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.[20]

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.

The University of Leiden has been the site of many discoveries, including Snell's law (by Willebrord Snellius), and the 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 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.

Leiden today

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The city's biggest and most popular annual festival is celebrated on 3 October and is called simply 3 Oktober. The people of Leiden celebrate the end of the Spanish siege of 1574.[21] It typically takes place over the course of two to three days and includes parades, a hutspot feast, historical reenactments, a funfair and other events. Since 2006, the city has also hosted the annual Leiden International Film Festival.[22]

Leiden has important functions as a shopping and trade centre for communities around the city.

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. Leiden also houses the headquarters of Airbus, a global pan-European aerospace and defence corporation and a leading defence and military contractor worldwide. The group includes Airbus, the leading manufacturer of commercial aircraft worldwide.

Buildings of interest

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Because of the economic decline from the end of the 17th until the middle of the 19th century, much of the 16th- and 17th-century city centre is still intact. It is the second largest 17th-century town centre in the Netherlands, the largest being Amsterdam's city centre.

A hundred buildings in the centre are decorated with large murals of poetry, part of a wall poem project active from 1992, and still ongoing.[23][24]

Notable people

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William II, Count of Holland in the Lakenhal

The following is a selection of important Leidenaren throughout history:

Public officials and scholars

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Historical population
YearPop.±% p.a.
13985,000—    
149711,000+0.80%
151414,250+1.53%
157412,456−0.22%
158112,144−0.36%
162244,745+3.23%
163244,000−0.17%
166567,000+1.28%
173270,000+0.07%
175038,105−3.32%
179530,955−0.46%
Source: Lourens & Lucassen 1997, pp. 112–114

The arts

[change | change source]
Rembrandt van Rijn, c. 1655
Willem van de Velde II, c. 1660)
Leoni Jansen, 2013
Herman Boerhaave
Johannes Diderik van der Waals
Alfons Groenendijk, 2017
Kjeld Nuis, 2018
Buurtpoes Bledder

References

[change | change source]

Citations

[change | change source]
  1. ↑ "College van burgemeester en wethouders" [Board of mayor and aldermen] (in Dutch). Gemeente Leiden. Archived from the original on 8 July 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  2. ↑ "Kerncijfers wijken en buurten 2020" [Key figures for neighbourhoods 2020]. StatLine (in Dutch). CBS. 24 July 2020. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
  3. ↑ "Postcodetool for 2312AT". Actueel Hoogtebestand Nederland (in Dutch). Het Waterschapshuis. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  4. ↑ "Bevolkingsontwikkeling; regio per maand" [Population growth; regions per month]. CBS Statline (in Dutch). CBS. 1 January 2019. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
  5. ↑ "Bevolkingsontwikkeling; Regionale kerncijfers Nederland" [Regional core figures Netherlands]. CBS Statline (in Dutch). CBS. 1 January 2020. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  6. ↑ "Leyden". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2nd ed. 1989.
  7. ↑ "Population of Cities in Netherlands (2021)". worldpopulationreview.com. Archived from the original on 31 August 2021. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
  8. ↑ "Online Etymology Dictionary". Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  9. ↑ Jona Lendering. "Towns in Germania Inferior: Lugdunum (Brittenburg)". Livius.org. Archived from the original on 24 May 2010. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
  10. ↑ John E. Sandrock. "Siege Notes - Windows To The Past" (PDF). thecurrencycollector.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 December 2013. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  11. ↑ "The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society – Access Denied". Newyorkfamilyhistory.org. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
  12. ↑ "Connection to Ground Zero". pages.prodigy.net. Archived from the original on 2 November 2007.
  13. ↑ "The Pilgrim Press". Pilgrimhall.org. 18 May 2005. Archived from the original on 3 May 1999. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
  14. ↑ "The Dutch Door to America". Americanheritage.com. April 1999. Archived from the original on 17 February 2012. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
  15. ↑ Geschiedenis van Nederland. Van de Opastand tot het Heden (4th ed.). Boom Amsterdam. 2017. p. 96.
  16. ↑ "Van Osnabrugge, Osenbruggen, Ossenbruch etc. Genealogy". Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
  17. ↑ Popkin, Jeremy D. (1989-10-01). News and Politics in the Age of Revolution: Jean Luzac's "Gazette de Leyde". Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9781501700712. Archived from the original on 21 February 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  18. ↑ "Leiden" (PDF). Amazing Holland. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 December 2018. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
  19. ↑ "History: Leiden, city of books". Burgersdijk & Niermans. Archived from the original on 17 October 2010. Retrieved 29 August 2010.
  20. ↑ "The Netherlands and the Berne Convention". The Publishers' circular and booksellers' record of British and foreign literature, Vol. 71. Sampson Low, Marston & Co. 1899. p. 597. Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 29 August 2010.
  21. ↑ Film & Television Coll Europe. Routledge. 2012. p. 315. ISBN 978-1-135-10295-1. Archived from the original on 16 April 2021. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  22. ↑ Dawson, Nick (28 September 2013). "Leiden International Film Festival Announces New US Indie Competition". Filmmaker Magazine. Archived from the original on 2 October 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  23. ↑ Fihn, Stephan (2005), "Poetry on the Wall", in Garg, Anu (ed.), Another Word A Day: An All-new Romp Through Some Of The Most Unusual And Intriguing Words In English, John Wiley & Sons, p. 59, ISBN 978-0-471-71845-1, archived from the original on 11 May 2016, retrieved 28 November 2015
  24. ↑ Khouw, Ida Indawati (15 July 2001), "Leiden, the Dutch city of poems", Jakarta Post, archived from the original on 25 April 2013
  25. ↑ "Buckholdt, Johann" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 04 (11th ed.). 1911.
  26. ↑ "Brewster, William" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 04 (11th ed.). 1911.
  27. ↑ "Heinsius Daniel" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). 1911.
  28. ↑ "Bradford, William (governor)" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 04 (11th ed.). 1911.
  29. ↑ "Junius, Franz" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). 1911.
  30. ↑ "Elzevir" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 09 (11th ed.). 1911.
  31. ↑ "Vossius, Isaac" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 58. 1899.
  32. ↑ "Heinsius, Nikolaes" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). 1911.
  33. ↑ "Bake, Jan" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 03 (11th ed.). 1911.
  34. ↑ "Dozy, Reinhart Pieter Anne" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 08 (11th ed.). 1911.
  35. ↑ "Tiele, Cornelis Petrus" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). 1911.
  36. ↑  "Engelbrechtzen, Cornelis" . Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
  37. ↑ "Goyen, Jan Josephszoon van" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). 1911.
  38. ↑ "Rembrandt" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). 1911.
  39. ↑ "Van de Velde, Willem (1610-1693)," . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 58. 1899.
  40. ↑ "Douw, Gerhard" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 08 (11th ed.). 1911.
  41. ↑ "Steen, Jan Havicksz" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). 1911.
  42. ↑ "Metsu, Gabriel" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). 1911.
  43. ↑ "Vandevelde, William" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). 1911.
  44. ↑ "Mieris" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). 1911.
  45. ↑ IMDb Database Archived 9 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 15 January 2020
  46. ↑ IMDb Database Archived 20 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 12 January 2020
  47. ↑ IMDb Database Archived 16 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 15 January 2020
  48. ↑ IMDb Database Archived 5 September 2020 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 15 January 2020
  49. ↑ IMDb Database Archived 1 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 15 January 2020
  50. ↑ IMDb Database Archived 17 September 2020 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 15 January 2020
  51. ↑ IMDb Database Archived 9 January 2020 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 12 January 2020
  52. ↑ "Snell, Willebrord" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). 1911.
  53. ↑ "Boerhaave, Hermann" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 04 (11th ed.). 1911.
  54. ↑ "Albinus, Bernhard Siegfried" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 01 (11th ed.). 1911.
  55. ↑ "Camper, Peter" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 05 (11th ed.). 1911.
  56. ↑ "Siebold, Philipp Franz von" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). 1911.
  57. ↑ An Obituary For an Extraordinary Cat; August 8, 2013 Archived 3 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 16 January 2020
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