Every design for Leiderdorp

Leiderdorp sits right up against Leiden, but two rivers keep them apart: the Zijl and the Oude Rijn, the Old Rhine, which mark the line between town and city. Nearby, the high-speed railway to Amsterdam and Brussels slips into its tunnel beneath the Groene Hart.

Matilo, the Roman fort close to Leiderdorp, is a reminder that the Rhine was once the northern border of the Roman Empire, and this is one of the oldest towns in South Holland. In the Middle Ages three castles were built here, among them Huis ter Does, and an Augustinian monastery, Engelendael, whose name lives on in the main road through town. During the Siege of Leiden, Leiderdorp was the headquarters of the Spanish general Francisco de Valdez, who never took the city. The Protestant Dorpskerk went up in the seventeenth century. The old district names around here, the Leithons, gave their name to both Leiden and Leiderdorp, and the land they formed, Holtlant, gave its name to Holland itself. Today the Ankerpark and the Blekerspark are where the town goes to breathe.

If your summers were spent along the Oude Rijn and your evenings cycling over the bridges into Leiden, keep this map close. It knows exactly where you come from.