The Lakenhal was the centre of cloth manufacture and trading. The building was designed in 1640 by the Leiden city architect Arent van ‘s Gravesande. With its courtyard and colonnades it looks like a city palace.

In the MiddleAges, Leiden was already known for its ‘laken’ (cloth), a handsome and well-made woollen fabric. After 1577 refugees from the Southern Netherlands introduced other fabrics. Production was organised by fabric in so-called ‘neringen’ (trades). Each nering had its own hall, where the products were inspected. A small lead seal attached to the cloth showed that the quality was excellent. The fabrics were sold all over the world, even to the Far East. Around 1640 the laken nering was by far the largest of all the neringen. Hence this impressive building decorated with sculptures alluding to wool production.

Nowadays the Lakenhal is the Municipal Museum of Leiden. Here you can see the work of Leiden masters from the past and present such as Lucas van Leyden, Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Steen and Floris Verster. There is also a wealth of information about the history of the city.