Vrouwekerk

[1] The ruined remains of this Gothic church are located on the Vrouwenkerkhof square opposite Museum Boerhaave, just north of the busy shopping street Haarlemmerstraat.

[5] Wealthy Leiden brewer Willem van Tetrode (not to be confused with the sculptor of the same name) was buried in the church in 1487.

[1] The building was donated to the Huguenots (Calvinist refugees from the Southern Netherlands and France), coming into use as a Walloon church in 1584.

A group of Leiden Huguenots led by Jessé de Forest were the first to settle on Manhattan, thereby founding New Amsterdam, now New York City.

De La Noye's aunt, Hester le Mahieu, married the Pilgrim leader Francis Cooke in the Vrouwekerk in 1603.

Many well-known Americans are descended from Philippe de la Noye (later anglicized to Delano) and Hester le Mahieu and Francis Cooke; these include U.S. presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, director Orson Welles, and actor Richard Gere.

[7][8][9] After a large part of the Huguenot community in Leiden left the city for the New World, the Vrouwekerk started falling apart, so that in 1808 it was no longer possible to hold services there.

[1][6] Despite the restoration, the church ruins deteriorated into a hangout spot for the local youth, leaving the remains covered in graffiti and soiled with urine.

The city government in 1995 applied for a permit to redevelop the area, including removal of the above-ground Vrouwekerk remains.

At that time, the VVD and CDA factions in the city council introduced an amendment to preserve the Vrouwekerk remains.

[12] After the restoration was complete, a ceremony to mark the occasion was held on 5 March 2009 in nearby Museum Boerhaave.