Museum De Lakenhal

The Lakenhal is Leiden's city museum: the fine-art collection, the history collection, and a remarkable group of paintings by Leiden masters including Rembrandt, Jan Steen, Lucas van Leyden, and Jan van Goyen. The building itself is a handsome 17th-century classical hall, expanded with a striking modern wing that opened after a full renovation in 2019.

The collection is paced just right — large enough to give a sense of the depth of Leiden's golden age, small enough to absorb in a couple of hours. Specials include silver from the city's medieval guilds and a room dedicated to the textile industry that gave the building its name.

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A story
The building was the city's old cloth hall, where wool merchants brought their bolts to be inspected and stamped with the lead seal that guaranteed Leiden quality. The painting at the heart of the museum's collection — Rembrandt's earliest signed work, the History Painting — was bought back for the museum after a long absence in 2012.

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