Supposedly, no other city has a sight similar to Wall Poems. It is kind of an open-air library available for everyone at any time: you only need to go outside and walk an easy route that meets you with beautiful poetry of the world-famous authors.

The idea of a conceptual painting on house walls appeared at the end of the 1980s thanks to the representatives of the avant-garde association Style: artist Jan-Willem Bruins and entrepreneur Ben Walenkamp. To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the group, artist Theo van Doesburg suggested painting walls with poems. But not everyone appreciated his poetry. Moreover, Leiden is a city where creative people from all over the world live and work. So, it was not a big deal to confine to local authors alone.

They pondered for a long time what to do. Finally, in 1992, the first poem, "For My Poems" by Marina Tsvetaeva, appeared on a house wall. Why this one? It is simple: in 1992, there was the 100th anniversary of the birth of the famous author.

Gradually, poems, written in the original, covered walls of Leiden houses.

The project was officially over in 2005 after writing a poem of the renowned Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca. It was the 101st poem. When searching on the Internet, you can find some information that the project continues despite the official closure. By 2013, the number of poems had increased to 107. Today it still grows because citizens like the idea so that they place verses in courtyards, on fences. Not all of these creations are included in the database.