Voorburg

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Coordinates: 52°04′N 4°22′E / 52.067°N 4.367°E / 52.067; 4.367

The old Town Hall 'Swaensteyn' from 1632

The old church in Voorburg

Voorburg is a Dutch town and former municipality of approximately 39,000 inhabitants in the western part of the province of South Holland, the Netherlands. Together with Leidschendam and Stompwijk, it is part of the municipality Leidschendam-Voorburg.

In 2002, the cities of Leidschendam and Voorburg were merged together under the new city name "Leidschendam-Voorburg". Situated adjacent to the city of The Hague, they are often regarded as its suburb.

Voorburg, the most densely populated of the three towns in the municipality, has its roots in the 2nd century, when a local civilian settlement gained city rights from the Romans, becoming known as Forum Hadriani. It was positioned along the Fossa Corbulonis, a canal connecting Rhine and Meuse that had been dug in 47 by the Roman general Corbulo. This waterway is now known as the Rijn-Schie canal (more commonly referred to as the Vliet) and is still a dominant landmark of the present day borough.

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 Voorburg country house. The house, located next to the main railway station, now functions as a museum. Spinoza also lived in Voorburg from 1663 to 1670. The former (Balkenende 3) Dutch Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, Pieter Winsemius, was also born in Voorburg.

Voorburg hosts the major branch of the country's statistics institute, the CBS, which provides most of the statistical data used by the government.

Voorburg had three train stations until June 2006: Voorburg, Voorburg 't Loo and Leidschendam-Voorburg station. The latter two are now part of Randstad Rail. Voorburg used to be an Intercity station, because there was an eternal agreement with the railways, that every passing train should stop. It lost that status, as the new train station is elevated and therefore no longer on the soil of Voorburg.^{[citation needed]}