Idea #592 – Visiting the city of Leiden in Netherlands
Leiden is the fifth city of the province of Holland-Southern in the Netherlands. The city is situated between Amsterdam and La Hague, in about ten kilometers of the coast of the North Sea. The city would have been based on the Rhine in Ist century, and would then have been known under the name of Lugdunum Batavorum. It seems to have known a decline at the beginning of the Early Middle Ages, before knowing a strong economic boom about the XIth century which transforms this simple village in town; during this period, a castle named Brucht, still visible on its artificial mound, is raised to the location of a wooden fort to assure the protection of the city. By 1150, Leithen belongs to the bishops of Utrecht; a second church is built. At the end of the XIIIth century, the city, famous for its Gothic church Saint-Peter, its markets for pigs and cattle, declines abruptly. In 1347, the city knows a second revival, with the development of the industry cloth merchant was carried by the weavers of Ypres. The successive presence of generations of Flemish workers in search of freedom boosts the textile manufacturings, in particular the woolen and linen sheets. In the XVIth century, the city supports the protesting camp, and joins the camp of the insurgents of the North, the founders of the Netherlands. The repeated seats are not right of the local resistance. In 1611, Leiden is surrounded with a modern wall, adapted to the artillery, the fourth since the XIIIth century.
Some Pictures
Where is it ?
Leiden, Netherlands
