Specialty Museums

Leiden is a university city with a long scientific tradition, and its museums reflect that. Founded in 1575, the University of Leiden is the oldest in the Netherlands, and it has produced or hosted many famous scholars, while the city itself was the birthplace of Rembrandt and a refuge for the English Pilgrims before they sailed on the Mayflower. The compact centre, laced with canals, contains an unusually wide range of museums, many of them linked to the university's collections, and it is easy to visit several in one or two days on foot.

Naturalis Biodiversity Center is the natural history museum, and it is among the best in Europe. It holds a vast collection of animals, fossils and minerals, with displays on evolution, the history of life and the diversity of species today, and it is known for its skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex. The Hortus Botanicus, founded in 1590, is one of the oldest botanical gardens in the world, and it was here that the botanist Carolus Clusius planted some of the first tulips in the Netherlands. Its historic greenhouses, old trees and collections of rare plants are a quiet place for an afternoon.

The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, the National Museum of Antiquities, holds archaeological treasures from Egypt, Greece, Rome and the Netherlands, including an Egyptian temple, the Temple of Taffeh, which was given to the Netherlands by Egypt. The Japan Museum SieboldHuis is in the former home of Philipp Franz von Siebold, a German physician who lived on the Japanese island of Dejima in the nineteenth century and brought back an important collection of Japanese art and objects. The Wereldmuseum, the world museum, covers global cultures through changing exhibitions, and Museum Boerhaave tells the history of science and medicine, named after the Leiden physician Herman Boerhaave. Corpus, a walk-through exhibition inside a giant human body, is in nearby Oegstgeest and is popular with families.

Smaller attractions fill out the picture. Molenmuseum De Valk is a historic windmill that is also a museum, where visitors can see how the mill worked and how the miller's family lived, and the city has guided walking tours that link the museums with the old streets, the canals and the university buildings. Many of the museums are close together, so it is easy to combine them with a stroll or a canal trip.

The museums suit families, students, science fans and culture lovers. Opening days, prices and special exhibitions change, so check before you go, and consider a museum card if you plan to visit several. Choose two or three that match your interests rather than trying to see everything, and leave time for the cafes of the old town.