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Though Leiden was a center of commerce long before Dutch independence and even has some claim to being a Roman settlement, it really took off when the father of the modern Netherlands, William of Orange, created the University here in the 16th Century to commemorate a famous and hard-won victory over the Spanish in the war for independence. As this victory was won largely by destroying the surrounding dykes, flooding the countryside and turning a land battle into a naval one, one presumes some cleanup was necessary before the city was ready to open its gates to students. Today, Leiden has the typical compact, canal-girded streets of medieval Dutch towns, but its status as a world famous college town lends it an air of internationalism and a collection of sights equal to a city many times it size.
