Leiden University

Founded 1575. Oldest university in the Netherlands, a gift from William of Orange.

Overview

William of Orange founded Leiden in 1575, traditionally as a reward to the city for withstanding the Spanish siege of 1574. It is the oldest university in the Netherlands. Hendrik Lorentz and Heike Kamerlingh Onnes did Nobel Prize winning physics there, Albert Einstein held a special visiting chair, and the Hortus Botanicus, where Carolus Clusius planted some of the country's first tulips, is among the oldest botanical gardens in Europe. Members of the Dutch royal family, including King Willem-Alexander, studied at Leiden, and the university runs a second campus in The Hague.