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Situation. LEYDEN. 41. Route. 345
y Carsjens) in 91/4 hrs. (fares 70, 50 c.), starting from the barbour.
4 Alphen to Woerden (p. 433), once daily except Sun. (as No. 5) in
s. (fares 40, 30 c.). — Pleasure voyages (aatsch. Carsjens), see p. 352.
Cab from the station to the town 60 c., per hour 1/2 fl.
Principal Attractions (1/2-1 day): Municipal Museum (see below); Mn-
seum of Antiquities (p. 347); Stadhuis (p. 349); University (p. 351); St.
Peter’s Church and its environs (p. 352). 3
Leyden or Leiden, in the middle ages Leithen, one of the most
ancient towns in Holland (although probably not the Lugdunum
Batavorum of the Romans), is situated on the so-called Old Rhine,
the slugzish waters of which flow through the town in several canal-
like arms. The town contains 58,000 inhab. (1/4 Roman Catholics).
Leyden became the centre of the Dutch textile industry when the
‘Yperlinge’ (weavers from Ypres) settled here after the great plague
(1347-50). Inthe 46th cent. Leyden sustained a terrible siege by the
Spaniards, which lasted from Oct. 31st, 1573, to Mar. 21st, 1574, and
a short and partial relief by Count Louis of Nassau, was
continued as a blockade down to Oct. 3rd of the same year. William
the Silent at last caused the S. dykes to be pierced, and the country
being thus inundated, he relieved the besieged by ship. According
to a popular tradition Prince William of Orange offered to reward
the citizens for their gallant conduct in the defence of 1574 by
exempting them from the payment of taxes for a certain number of
years, or by the establishment of a university in their city. The
latter alternative is said to have been preferred; at all events, the
prince founded the University in {575. Its fame soon extended to
every part of Europe. The greatest scholars of their age, Scaliger,
Hugo Grotius (p. 344), Dodonzus (p. 160), Salmasius, Ruhnken,
Wyttenbach, and Boerhaave (who founded the fame of the medical
faculty in the 48th cent.), resided and wrote here, and Arminius
and Gomarus, the founders of the sects named after them (p. 457),
were professors at the university. Lord Stair (d. 1695), the cel-
ebrated Scottish jurist, spent several years in exile at Leyden,
whence he accompanied his future sovereign, William of Orange, to
Great Britain in 1688.
Leyden was the birthplace of several of the painters of the 16th
and 17th centuries: Lucas van Leyden, Joris van Schooten, Jacob
yan Swanenburgh, the great Rembrandt van Ryn, Jan Steen, Gerard
Dou, Gabriel Metsu, Jan van Goyen, Frans van Mieris, Pieter van
Slingelandt, etc. It possesses, however, but few specimens of their
works.
The road from the Station (P1. B, 1) to the town passes a bronze
statue of Herman Boerhaave (Pl. B, 1), the famous physician (sce
above), modelled by Th. Stracké, and leads to the Beesten-Markt
(Pl. B, 2). A little to the E., at Oude Singel 32, is the —
Municipal Museum (Stedelyl Museum ; Pl. 0, 2), occupying the
former Laeckenhalle or Lakenhal (‘cloth-hall’), erected in 1640 by
the architect § Gravesande. The museum, which contains a few
then, after
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