Wandering Aimlessly: NETHERLANDS: Leiden

Sunday, August 20, 2023

NETHERLANDS: Leiden

Leiden is about a 20 minute train ride north from The Hague.

The city is known for its university, the birthplace of Rembrandt in 1606 and for its beautiful, old city centre (the second biggest after Amsterdam).

Legend has it that as a reward for defending Leiden against Spanish attacks, the residents of the city were given the choice between not paying taxes for a period of time, or, the founding of a university.

The residents chose the university.

The University of Leiden is the oldest in the Netherlands and dates back to 1575.

What left the biggest impression on both John and me in Leiden was the National Museum of Antiquities and their phenomenal collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts.

In the front entrance to the museum is the small Temple of Taffeh. The temple, and many other artifacts, were given to the Netherlands from the Egyptians as a gift for the country's contribution to the preservation of historical Egyptian antiquities.

The joint project began in 1959, when an international donations campaign was launched by Egypt and Sudan to save the monuments of Lower Nubia.

The relics of the Ancient Egyptian civilization were under threat from the construction of the Aswan High Dam to create Lake Nasser.

In gratitude, Egypt assigned several monuments to the countries that replied to this plea in a significant way, including the Netherlands.

I have provided two links below to go to if you are interested in more info on the project.

The quality of the Egyptian collection in Leiden is phenomenal.

So many of the artifacts are in immaculate condition.

Another piece of cocktail conversation trivia, which I did not know before, is that the United States' Pilgrims lived in Leiden for twelve years before leaving for America.

So how did the Pilgrims end up in Leiden before sailing to America?

Leiden was a city of free-thinkers, relative religious tolerance, and had a long tradition of offering shelter to the persecuted.

Following their escape from England and the religious turmoil there, the Pilgrims carved new lives in Leiden, bought land and built houses.

Some of the Pilgrim community feared they were loosing their religious identity in Leiden and in 1620 chose to emigrate from Leiden to North America. Seen as the founders of the United States, the Pilgrim's have around 25 million American descendants today.

From humble beginnings seeking safe refuge in Leiden, nine of their descendants have made it to Presidents of the USA, including Adams (x2), Taylor, Grant, Garfield, Roosevelt, Bush Sr. and Jr, Obama, and, New York's first mayor was Leiden-born Thomas Willett.