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- October 13° · 18 rainy days
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- 8 km Rotterdam · 44 km Amsterdam
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Delft is a small town wedged between The Hague and Rotterdam, with canals, a square and two towers, and half a day covers it. Johannes Vermeer was born here in 1632 and died here in 1675 — and not one of his paintings is in town, because only some thirty survive and they all hang in major museums.
Vermeer is present in Delft as a place rather than a collection. The View of Delft hangs in the Mauritshuis in The Hague, ten minutes away by train, and it is worth seeing and then coming back to stand on the bank he painted it from. The town itself has the Vermeer Centre, which works with reproductions and explains how he painted — useful, as long as you know in advance there are no originals.
The other thing Delft is known for is blue-and-white pottery. The De Porceleyne Fles workshop, now Royal Delft, was founded in 1653 and is the last survivor of some thirty original seventeenth-century Delftware factories. Painting is still done there by hand, piece by piece, and that's the difference between a €200 plate and an €8 souvenir from the same street. The workshop is still at the same address, at the southern end of town, twenty minutes' walk from the square.
Historically, Delft was the capital of the revolt against Spain. William of Orange was assassinated here in 1584 in the Prinsenhof, where the bullet holes are still visible in the stairwell wall, and he was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk across the square. It has been the dynastic burial place ever since: the crypt below holds around forty-six members of the royal family, most recently Juliana and Bernhard in 2004. William is also reckoned the first European head of state to be assassinated with a firearm, which is why a small town stayed tied to a dynasty long after the capital moved elsewhere.
What to see in Delft
The Nieuwe Kerk and the royal tombs
Above the crypt stands the mausoleum of William of Orange, made by Hendrick and Pieter de Keyser around 1621. The royal crypt itself is closed and never has been open to the public — you enter the church, not the vault. The tower is 108.75 metres, the second tallest in the country, and you can climb to a platform at 85 metres.
The Oude Kerk and its leaning tower
A thirteenth-century tower that visibly leans, because its foundations were laid across a filled-in canal. Inside are the graves of Vermeer and of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, the first man to see bacteria through a microscope he built himself. One ticket usually covers both churches.
Royal Delft
The 1653 factory where the painting is still done by hand, with a museum, a workshop route and a view over the painters at their benches. It shows you why a genuine Delft piece costs what it costs, and how it differs from a printed souvenir.
The Vermeer Centre
A display on Vermeer's life and technique, with full-size reproductions of every known painting and a reconstruction of his studio. There are no originals — but it explains the camera obscura and the way he built light, which changes what you see in The Hague afterwards.
The Markt
One of the largest squares in the Netherlands, with the Nieuwe Kerk at one end and the town hall at the other. There's a market on Thursdays and a flea market on Saturdays; the rest of the week it's a big empty space with cafes around the edge.
Two things you probably did not know
Vermeer spent his whole life in Delft and painted only some thirty pictures now accepted as his. He died in debt, and was rediscovered only two centuries later.
Delft blue pottery began as a cheap substitute for Chinese porcelain, which stopped arriving in the seventeenth century because of war in China. The Dutch coated ordinary clay with white glaze and painted it blue, and the substitute became sought after in its own right.
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