Rapenburg

The Rapenburg is the most beautiful canal in Leiden and, by general agreement, one of the most beautiful in the country. Lined with double rows of lime trees and tall brick houses with stepped gables, the water runs straight from the south of the old town past the university and the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden up to the Pieterskerk.

A slow walk down both sides takes about an hour, taking in the Hortus Botanicus, the Academiegebouw, and a long stretch of patrician 17th-century houses. The view from the small humpback bridge at the north end is the one in all the postcards.

things to do sight
A story
In January 1807 a barge loaded with gunpowder exploded on the Rapenburg, levelling 150 houses and killing more than 150 people — the Leiden gunpowder disaster. The resulting empty square, where the Lakenhal would later expand and the city's elite would not rebuild, is still the wide-open green of Van der Werfpark.