Rijksmuseum van Oudheden

The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, known in English as the National Museum of Antiquities, is the Netherlands' foremost archaeological museum and one of Leiden's most significant cultural institutions. Its origins trace back to 1743, when Leiden University inherited the antiquities collection of Gerard van Papenbroek. The collection grew substantially under Caspar Reuvens, widely regarded as the world's first professor of archaeology, and the museum opened to the public in August 1838 after the university acquired an 18th century mansion to house it. The current purpose built building on Rapenburg dates from 1885. The museum's permanent collection spans ancient Egypt, the Near East, classical Greece, Etruria and Rome, and the prehistoric, Roman and medieval Netherlands. Among its most arresting exhibits is the Temple of Taffeh, an authentic Egyptian temple dismantled in Egypt and rebuilt inside the museum's central hall as part of a UNESCO effort to preserve Nubian heritage.

In recent years the museum has also established itself as a concert venue, making use of its atmospheric historic halls for live music events. The Candlelight concert series has taken place here, bringing candlelit tribute performances dedicated to artists such as Queen, The Beatles and Adele to seated audiences within the museum's galleries. These events typically run around sixty minutes and draw on the unusual combination of ancient surroundings and live music to create an experience quite unlike a conventional concert hall. The museum's close ongoing relationship with Leiden University's Faculty of Archaeology gives the venue an intellectual character that distinguishes it from other Leiden spaces used for cultural programming.