Stadhuis

STADHUIS (Town Hall):

Façade 1595; represents the attempt to revive Leiden's importance as a commercial center after the Siege of Leiden (1573-4), when half the population died of starvation, and after the fall of Antwerp to Catholic armies in 1585 and the closing of Antwerp's port. The money for the new town hall was arranged by the leading banker of the Flemish and Walloon (Huguenot) refugees, Daniel van der Meulen. He nominated the architect, Lieven de Key, also a refugee, and the sculptor, Luder van Benthem, who altered the designs while carving the façade stones at his quarry near Bremen in Germany. Various Pilgrim couples were married in civil ceremonies before magistrates in Leiden's city hall - for example, William Bradford and Dorothy May's marriage was registered here.

At the far end of the Town Hall, turn left and go one block to the Nieuwe Rijn River and the covered bridge, the Coornbrug. Upstream, one block to the right is a footbridge that leads directly to the the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum at Beschuitsteeg nr. 9.

Leiden American Pilgrim Museum