Every design for Delft

In the hall of Het Prinsenhof, once the convent of Saint Agatha, William of Orange was shot dead in 1584, a story every Delft schoolchild grows up with. His tomb, the Praalgraf van Willem van Oranje, stands in the city, and the House of Orange has traditionally been buried in Delft ever since.

What sets Delft apart is how much of the Dutch Golden Age still stands in one compact city. Count Willem II granted its charter in 1246; the VOC kept a chamber here; Johannes Vermeer painted its streets; and the blue pottery that made the city famous lives on at De Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles. Between the Nieuwe Kerk, the Oude Kerk and the Oostpoort, the historic centre is laced with canals.

Today the city is also TU Delft, students on bicycles and the quiet weight of history between The Hague and Rotterdam. For anyone who has lived here, a map of Delft is not a tourist plan but the way back home.