Around the Rapenburg
The Around the Rapenburg walk takes you along the canal where Leiden University was founded 450 years ago.
The heart of the university still stands on Rapenburg: the Academy Building. Along the waterfront, many traces of the 450-year-old university can be discovered. This Rapenburg walk, published in honour of the university's anniversary in 2025, offers a walk along some memorable moments of the university's history. Apart from Leiden city centre, in 2025 the university is also located in the Leiden Bio Science Park and at Campus The Hague.
Odd side, from 1 to 73
Every year, hundreds of students and other sports enthusiasts swim a length of the Rapenburg canal to raise money for research on spinal cord injury. The race is an initiative of Leiden students, inspired by the touching story of Leiden student Maarten Jorissen, who su ered a spinal cord injury in an accident in the summer of 2016
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Hostas and hydrangeas: these popular plants can be found in many a flowerbed. The plants were originally brought to the Netherlands from Japan by German physician Philipp Franz von Siebold. The many treasures he collected in Japan in around 1829 can be found in his former home, now a museum.
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Built in the 17th century, this library is still in use today, which makes it unique in the world. It contains some 2,500 books that belonged to book collector Johannes Thysius. He stipulated in his will that this canal house which he commissioned should remain a library in perpetuity.
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Two famous scholars lived here: chemist Sylvius, who had a laboratory built here in the 17th century, and in the 18th century, the world-famous physician Boerhaave, for whose advice Czar Peter the Great came all the way to Leiden. Boerhaave's motto appears in Latin on the house: Simplicity is the hallmark of truth. His gravestone can be found in the Pieterskerk.
This was the workplace of tropical doctor Paul Christiaan Flu. He was descended from Jewish and enslaved Surinamese people, and was appointed Rector of Leiden University in 1938. During the war, he spoke out against the occupation, and was imprisoned in Camp Vught in 1944. He survived the war, but succumbed shortly afterwards to exhaustion.
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Courageous, defiant and unyielding: these were the characteristic features of Benjamin Telders, Professor of International Law, who stood up to the German occupiers. He lived here, was imprisoned, and died in the Bergen-Belsen camp. He is still an inspiration to law students to engage in debate.
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When Princess Beatrix studied law and sociology in Leiden, she lived on the Rapenburg, as did later her son, King Willem-Alexander: she at number 45, he at number 116.
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It was on the front pages of all the Japanese newspapers: the Japanese Emperor, on an o cial visit to Leiden, chatting casually on the street with two female students. A photograph on the façade recalls this special moment.
Klikspaan, the pseudonym of Johannes Kneppelhout, who lived here as a law student, described different types of students in his 1840 book: from the ‘Leydenaar’, the typical Leiden student, to the ‘Klaplooper’, or leper.
The Botanical Garden is Leiden University's green study garden. For over four centuries, plants from all over the world have been collected and grown, admired and studied in the beautiful garden and greenhouses.
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This is the heart of the university: the Academy Building. Once a convent church that was looted by Protestants during the Iconoclasm of 1566, it is now the place where Leiden graduates sign their names on the wall of the Zweetkamertje (Sweat Room).
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The bridge is named after the White Nuns of the monastery and church where the Academy Building is now located.
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The wall on the corner with Nonnensteeg displays the lines of the Japanese haiku ‘An Angry Sea’. An angry sea/to the island of Sado/stretches the Milky Way. Poet Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) was the inventor of the haiku. Leiden has more than 100 wall poems.
On 3 October 1574, the Watergeuzen (Sea Beggars) entered the city with their boats via the Vliet canal and brought herring and white bread to the starving population. As a reward for its resistance, the city was gifted a university. On the memorial stone, a poem appears that starts with Men was in groot verdriet, Want Eten wasser niet. (People were in great sorrow, for there was no food.)
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In 1807, a ship full of gunpowder exploded here, destroying part of the city. A new physics laboratory was built on this location, later named after Kamerlingh Onnes, whose 1908 experiments created the coldest place on earth here. It is now home to the Faculty of Law. The physicists have since relocated to the Leiden Bio Science Park.
Rapenburg project
Who lived along the Rapenburg? What did their home interiors look like, and what art hung on their walls? In the late 20th century, art historian Willemijn Fock and her team mapped six centuries of the history of the residents of this part of the Rapenburg. Their research offered many new insights into how the people of Leiden would have lived.
Even side, from 120 to 10
There are dozens of student houses on Rapenburg. The girls’ house at number 120 is nicknamed the ‘Kippenhok’ (Henhouse). Criminal lawyer Natacha Harlequin was one of the residents. King Willem-Alexander lived at number 116 when he studied history.
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In 2017, Rie Schild de Groen (94), landlady of the 'Heerenhoeckje' student house, passed away. She had been cleaning the student house for nearly 70 years. She would come in every morning and start the day with a cup of co ee. Rie required all the house residents to be present, because her philosophy was: ‘A real man in the evening, a real man in the morning’. From her estate, a named fund was established at Leiden University for cancer research.
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This building is known as Oude UB – with UB being a student acronym for the university library. Faliede Begijnhof chapel, behind this building (visible from the garden at the rear), was the university's home from 1577 to 1581. It was later used as the rst university library, the fencing school, and the anatomical theatre. From 1917 to 1983, the large building housed the university library, which is now located on the Witte Singel.
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A biodiverse garden that attracts bees and butter ies. With advice from the Botanical Garden, the garden of this university building was planted anew to create the desired e ect.
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For many, the songs of the Leidsch Studenten Cabaret form the soundtrack of their student days in the 1950s and 1960s. The cabaret performers included law student Paul van Vliet and French student Liselore Gerritsen. The lyrics of one their student songs is carved into a paving stone: Laat je zoon studeren en je aanzien is een feit… (Let your son study and your prestige is guaranteed...)
Leiden University maintains a warm relationship with its alumni. The Alumnihuis (number 68) houses the Leiden University Fund (LUF), which on this anniversary is raising funds for research that bene ts children. Alumnus Ruurt Hazewinkel donated the house at number 60 to the university.
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The balcony of Huize Welgelegen was made famous by the book, film and musical Soldier of Orange. This is where Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema lived when he was studying law in Leiden. During the Second World War, he joined the resistance and became an ‘Engelandvaarder’, one of the people who managed to escape to England.
Did you say something? In 1807, when the gunpowder ship exploded (see Hot & Cold), the deaf wife of Professor Te Water supposedly looked up from her knitting and asked: ‘Did you say something, Te Water?’ The story goes that, the explosion was heard all the way in Friesland.
This house was home to, the wealthy Van Leyden family. Several family members studied at Leiden University and became mayors, including Diderik van Leyden. The family cared for the city's poor, but some of their wealth was amassed through trade and exploitation in the Dutch colonies.
She must have knitted some 10 million stitches: Joke van der Poel, a former university staff member, is known for her red and white 3 October jumpers, which are a real collector's item for many fans.
Swords, jewellery, pottery and a Roman bronze mask resembling Dutch entertainer Gordon... You will find stunning artefacts at the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities. The museum started out with an inheritance, which Leiden University received in 1744: 150 Greek and Roman statues.
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Augustinus student association, founded in 1893, now has some 2,000 members. The restaurant is also open to non-members. Leiden has 25 student associations.
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Here stood the Barbara Convent, the site of the new university in 1575. After two years, the building had already become too small, and the university relocated to number 70.
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More university walks
There are many more walks through Leiden with an eye on the impact the university has on the city. Discover these at VVV-Leiden. For example, walk the Math trail or one of the Leiden City World Walks. Or with an audio tour along the Leiden wall formulas.
Exhibition The eternal student
Visit the exhibition on 450 years of studying at Leiden University. From 22 April to 26 October in the Hortus botanicus.