De Burcht

The castle of Leiden - now in the middle of the city - was originally built on an artificial hill on the western tip of an 'island' in the Rhine. A moat protected the fortification on the east side. The hill was built in several stages around the year 1000, probably as a refuge in times of flooding. In the eleventh century, Count Floris I of Holland made the castle his power base, after Vlaardingen and Rijnsburg were destroyed by imperial troops. At that time there was only a wooden or stone tower on the hill. The boundary wall that still stands today was built in the twelfth century. Now only the foundation remains of the original residential tower.