VROUWEKERK:

Standing in the public square in front of the Boerhaave Museum, just north of the Haarlemmerstraat. In Pilgrim times, this was the Walloon (or Huguenot) Church (now the congregation uses a small chapel on the Breestraat instead). Francis Cooke and Hester Mahieu were married here in 1603, and their nephew Philipe de la Noye (Philip Delano) was baptised here the same year. These Pilgrims became ancestors of United States presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and George H. W. Bush. The church is presently threatened with imminent demolition. One of Leiden's aldermen, responsible for urban development, considered the ruin an eyesore in the way of the view from a modern commercial property he wanted as a replacement for the medieval houses across the street from the ruin. Now that he has resigned in the face of massive cost overruns in another of his projects, there is a possibility that the demolition of the Vrouwekerk could be reconsidered, but no such change has been announced yet. See this historic site before it's flattened for short-term profit.

Returning back along the Hartebrug Kerk (or going around the block to the front of the Hartebrug Kerk), proceed to the footbridge over the Rijn, leading to the Weigh House. (The Hartebrug Kerk is generally open. It is a good example of the first style of architecture employed in the new Catholic churches that could be built when laws were liberalized in the early 19th century allowing construction of dissenters' churches that could be seen from the street.)