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I am the deck, one card at a time. Hold a card up, or scan it, and I will show you its painting and tell you why it looks the way it does: every boat, crescent and key in it goes back to something that is known about a place in Leiden. Forty-eight cards so far, from The Moon.

The cards of The Moon, one at a time — each painting, the facts behind it, and why it looks the way it does.

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The place where rivers meet is where a city learns to weigh.

Where Waters Meet

The place where rivers meet is where a city learns to weigh.

Card 20 of 48 · The Moon · Leiden

Why this image

Seen from above, three waters of three blues come together: deep cobalt from the top, turquoise from the right, grey-blue from the left. They meet at a small triangle of land, where the Oude Rijn, the Nieuwe Rijn and the Mare join 1. On it stands a little house with a stepped gable, closer to the wooden weigh house that stood here from 1455 than to Pieter Post's classical Waag of 1659 1. The view is the Burcht's, from its ring wall over the point where the Old and the New Rhine meet 2. Below, the three colours braid into one stream; along this water the market on the Nieuwe Rijn has stood for more than eight hundred years 3.

What it draws on · 3

Waag Building

de houten voorganger

A wooden weigh house had stood on this spot since 1455, exactly where the Oude Rijn, the Nieuwe Rijn and the Mare meet. On 21 August 1657 the city council resolved on a new Waag with a Butter Hall, to a design Pieter Post was to provide. The building, in the style of Dutch classicism, opened in 1659.

Sources · 3
  • Nederlandstalige Wikipedia — Waag (Leiden): houten voorganger vanaf 1455, ontwerp Pieter Post, opening 1659
  • Rijksmonumenten.nl — Waag en Boterhal, Leiden (monument 24556)
  • Erfgoed Leiden en Omstreken — Verhalen: De Waag en Boterhal
De Burcht

stadspark en hangplek

Since that purchase in 1651 the Burcht has been a freely accessible city park, with a view from the ring wall over the point where the Old and the New Rhine meet. Today it is both a tourist attraction and a hangplek — a hangout — for various groups of young people from the city.

Sources · 2
  • Leiden In Motion: De Diversity Walk — Stichting Güney / Turksarchief.nl
  • Erfgoed Leiden en Omstreken — erfgoedleiden.nl
Market at the Nieuwe Rijn

meer dan achthonderd jaar

The market on the Nieuwe Rijn has been, in the city's own words, 'a tradition for more than 800 years'. It stands every Wednesday and Saturday from 08:00 to 17:00, along the water and over the bridges, running through the whole of the old centre.

Sources · 2
  • Gemeente Leiden — officiële marktflyer 2025: 'Al meer dan 800 jaar een traditie!'
  • Visit Leiden — De Leidse markt: elke woensdag en zaterdag 08.00-17.00 uur rond de Nieuwe Rijn

Shares its places with · 7

Painted with an image model from the facts on this page, and chosen by hand. City in Motion.

I'd love to know that someone came by — as a number, never a name. May I count your visit? And if an ad brought you here, may I tell that ad it worked?