The best museums in Leiden in September 2025

These are the top 10 best museums in Leiden, the Netherlands, ranked by their rating and popularity in 2025. Click a museum for more information about the museum, including visitor information, exhibitions and reviews.

For a complete overview of museums in Leiden, their exhibitions and discount cards & passes, see our overview page with all museums in Leiden.

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Looking for the best museums in Leiden? These are the best ones:

  1. National Museum of Antiquities1

    National Museum of Antiquities

     Leiden
    The National Museum of Antiquities is housed in an old monumental building and ‘Begijnhof’. It is the Dutch centre for archaeology. A large part of the collection consists of objects related to ancient Egypt. Unique is the two thousand year old Egyptian temple in the central hall of the museum. Besi
  2. Online discount!Wereldmuseum Leiden2

    Wereldmuseum Leiden

     Leiden
    With its scientific orientation and collecting history, Wereldmuseum Leiden focuses on global cultural histories. The themes you see here include religion or indigenous worlds and their struggle for independence and restoration of historical injustice. The exhibitions encourage us to reflect on what
  3. Windmill museum De Valk3

    Windmill museum De Valk

     Leiden
    Stedelijk Molenmuseum De Valk is housed in De Valk, a mill from 1743. The museum features the only preserved mill house in the Netherlands, from 1900. In the sleeping loft and the storage loft, the history and technology of mills and wheat grinding is illustrated. In the attic the visitor can see th
  4. Naturalis Biodiversity Center4

    Naturalis Biodiversity Center

     Leiden
    Naturalis owns a large natural history collection of 37 million objects. The collection is partially exhibited in the museum and includes animals, plants, fossils and stones from around the world. All aspects of nature are covered in Naturalis. The visitor travels from the first life on Earth to the
  5. Hortus Botanicus Leiden5

    Hortus Botanicus Leiden

     Leiden
    Hortus Botanicus Leiden, of the Leiden University is the oldest botanical garden in the Netherlands, from 1590. The first plants were planted in 1594. Four centuries of collecting has resulted in a garden with a variety of exotic unknown plants. The Hortus features an Orangery from 1744, tropical gr
  6. Museum De Lakenhal6

    Museum De Lakenhal

     Leiden
    Museum De Lakenhal is the municipality museum of Leiden, that is housed in Leiden’s old cloth hall from 1640. It is the museum of arts, crafts and history of Leiden. The museum covers the history of Leiden from Leiden’s relief in 1574. Important in the museum are works by old masters such as Rembran
  7. Rijksmuseum Boerhaave7

    Rijksmuseum Boerhaave

     Leiden
    Rijksmuseum Boerhaave is the Netherlands’ treasure chamber of science and medicine. What were the major discoveries in the history of science in the Netherlands? Who were the researchers behind them and how great is the impact of their discoveries on our lives today? Find out more about their inv
  8. Japan Museum SieboldHuis8

    Japan Museum SieboldHuis

     Leiden
    The Siebold House is housed in a monumental building that used to be used as the district court. The museum’s collection consists of objects that were collected by Philipp Franz von Siebold in the period 1823 – 1829 during his stay in the Dutch trading post Dejima. Siebold collected more than 25,000
  9. Leiden American Pilgrim Museum9

    Leiden American Pilgrim Museum

     Leiden
  10. Saint Joseph Church10

    Saint Joseph Church

     Leiden
    Exhibitions are regularly held in the side aisles of St. Joseph's Church in Leiden. Exhibitions in recent years have included: 'On the Road to Damascus: The Beginning of a New Life' (2009), 'The Shroud of Turin' (2017), 'Mother Teresa: Her Life, Work, and Spirituality' (2018), the Icon Exhibition Pa

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