Voorburg (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈvoːrbʏr(ə)x]) is a town and former municipality in the west part of the province of South Holland, Netherlands.

Around the middle of the 2nd century, Voorburg received town rights and was given the official name Municipium Aelium Cananefatum.

[3][4] Forum Hadriani was located along the Fossa Corbulonis, a canal connecting the Rhine and the Meuse, which was dug in 47 AD by the Roman general Corbulo.

However, from the 3rd century onwards the number of inhabitants fell sharply; this was related to the attacks by Germanic tribes from above the Rhine, but increasing flooding may also have played a role.

The settlement continued to collapse over time with not many people left during the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD.

[3] Around the year 600 and just after the Great Migration Period, the Frisian king Ezelsoor, presumambly Audulf, had a large castle built on its remains, which he called Hogeburch.

Bishop Hunger of Utrecht, who owned a number of farms at the place, but which had been stolen by the Normans, made a list of all his possessions that he hoped to regain.

Due to the new Leidsche dam in the Vliet canal (which would become the town of Leidschendam), trading skippers had to transfer their goods, travellers had to wait for their barge and workmen offered their services there.

Famous inhabitants of Voorburg include the 17th century author and poet Constantijn Huygens, who spent many years building his small country house Hofwijck with adjacent geometrically shaped gardens alongside the Vliet.

His son, the famous astronomer and mathematician Christiaan Huygens, spent several years in his father's country house in Voorburg.

In Voorburg, Spinoza continued work on the Ethics and corresponded with scientists, philosophers, and theologians throughout Europe.

He also wrote and published his Theological Political Treatise in 1670, in defense of secular and constitutional government, and in support of Johan de Witt, the Grand Pensionary of the Netherlands, against the Stadtholder, the Prince of Orange.