Leiden is famous for its university, museums and glorious history. The spirit of the Golden Age lives on here, a place where Rembrandt was born and inspired so many other influential painters. But even after this era Leiden continued to attract scientists, artists and industry.

In 1575, Leiden had the distinction of becoming the first city in the northern Netherlands to have a university. Leiden University became one of the leading universities in Europe and the tremendous degree of freedom of conscience stimulated the school's growth. Life in Leiden is greatly influenced by the relatively large number of students, as most of them both live and study in the historic city of Leiden. You will almost always run into someone you know when you go shopping or when you go out at night. 

After the siege of Leiden, William of Orange rewarded the brave citizens with the establishment of a university, based in a former convent on one of the main canals, the Rapenburg. Having escaped the repressive Spanish/Catholic regime, the Netherlands attracted religious and political (the two were inextricably linked) refugees and Leiden became known as a city of tolerance and intellectual excitement. Leiden, along with Edinburgh became the leading centres of enlightened thinking and research in Europe. If there had been Nobel prizes at the time, these two institutions would have scooped the lions share. The philosopher Justus Lipsius ( 1547-1606), the historian Joseph Scaliger (1540-1609), the international lawyer Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) the theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609). It was here that Carolus Clusius (1526-1609) established the first botanical gardens in Europe, and here much later that Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) started his work on the classification of plants. Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738) made pioneering contributions to the study and practice of medicine here in Leiden.

The university never entered a phase of decline, but it was caught up and sometimes overtaken by other centres of learning. Even so, at the start of the 20^th century, the university managed to get its share of Noble prizes. Hendrik Lorentz and Pieter Zeeman received the 1902 Nobel prize for Physics for their work on electro-dynamics, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes received the 1913 Nobel prize for Physics for liquefying helium and his work on the ‘absolute zero’ and Willem Einthoven were awarded the 1924 Noble Prize for Medicine for the invention of the discovery of the electrocardiogram. It was in these years that Albert Einstein worked for a short time at the University.

Today, the university has six faculties (Archeology, Humanities, Law, Social Sciences, mathematics and natural Sciences and, most recently, the Hague Campus). It has a library of over 3,5 million volumes, and many collections are3 unique in the World. The university has the equivalent of over 1000 full-time teaching staff and 16,000 students. Last year slightly over 4000 undergraduates and 2600 masters students started their degrees. It remains one of the top-20 universities in Continental Europe.