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A park in a polder on the edge of town, with cows and wildlife (especially birds). Nice for walks.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
It is named after the mayor Pieter Adriaanszoon van der Werff, who defended the town against the Spaniards in 1574, 6 years into the Eighty Years' War of Independence (1568-1648) against the Spaniards. The town was beleaguered for months and many died from hunger. According to legend van der Werff was accused by a frantic crowd of secretly hiding food reserves. He denied it vehemently and to prove his sincerity offered to cut off his arm to serve as food. This made people back off, ashamed of their mistrust. The Van der Werff Park is one of the small parks in Leiden's centre and is probably the most interesting one due to its history. There used to be blocks of houses here but during the cold afternoon of January 12, 1807, a disaster occurred. A ship filled with 18 tons of gunpowder blew up, leveling the surrounding blocks of houses on both sides of the canal and killing hundreds in the process. It's claimed the explosion was heard in Groningen, 250 km away. Years later, the area was turned into a park on one side and a laboratory was built on the other; the Kamerlingh Onnes laboratory: famed for at one time being the coldest place on earth, where helium was liquefied for the first time, and superconductivity discovered, which earned Kamerlingh Onnes a Nobel Prize.
Academy Building
The old university building still used for ceremonies and a few studies.
Wall Poems
This site suggests a rather unusual way of sightseeing: walk and read poems written on the walls. More than 100 poems from all over the world are painted on the walls of houses. The poems are written in various languages, but there is also a small plaque beneath an each piece with Dutch and English translations. This project was conducted between 1992 and 2005. One can check with the map.
Botanical Garden
The garden hosts different species of flowers and trees around the world. The oldest botanical garden in the Netherlands, it's part of the University of Leiden.
The Church of St. Peter (the patron saint of the city) is a 16th-century church, in late-Gothic style. A feature which Americans will find interesting is that this church is associated with the Pilgrim Fathers, whose leader John Robinson, lived in the nearby Pieterskerkchoorsteeg (house is marked with a plaque). The church features a small exhibition on the Pilgrims in Leiden. People buried here include the physician Boerhaave, the painter Jan Steen (of Rijksmuseum fame) and the Pilgrim leader Robinson.
It is a small house (built between 1365 and 1370) opposite the bell tower of the Hooglandse kerk, furnished in the style common to the Pilgrim era.