Delft

Delft takes its name from the Delf, a dug canal, beside which a count built a manor, probably around 1075. The settlement grew into an important market town — the size of its market square still shows it — and on 15 April 1246 Count William II granted it a city charter. In 1389 a canal was cut south to the Maas, where the harbour of Delfshaven gave the town access to the sea, and by 1400 Delft was the third-largest city in Holland. A great fire destroyed much of it in 1536.

In 1572 William of Orange, leader of the revolt against Spain, made his headquarters in the former convent of St Agatha, now the Prinsenhof, and after 1581 Delft was in effect the capital of the young Dutch Republic. On 10 July 1584 William was shot dead in the Prinsenhof by Balthazar Gerards; because the family's burial place at Breda was in Spanish hands, he was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk, beginning a royal tradition that continues today. The 17th century brought a chamber of the Dutch East India Company, the Delftware industry and painters such as Vermeer, Pieter de Hoogh and Carel Fabritius. On 12 October 1654 a gunpowder store exploded, flattening the centre, killing at least a hundred people, Fabritius among them, and leaving the space that became the horse market.

King William II founded the academy that became Delft University of Technology in 1842, and science came to define the modern city: the pioneering work of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek and, later, Martinus Beijerinck made it a birthplace of microbiology. After the Second World War new districts such as Voorhof and Tanthof spread south and west of the railway, and in 2015 the line was put into a tunnel beneath a new station.

Delft's cultural fame rests on two things: blue-and-white pottery and painting. Delftware began when the city, a home port of the East India Company, imitated the Chinese porcelain arriving in the 17th century; of the 32 factories founded then, only Royal Delft, De Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles, still works. The painters of the Delft School — Vermeer, who lived his whole life in the city, Pieter de Hoogh, Fabritius, Nicolaes Maes and others — were known for scenes of domestic life, courtyards, church interiors and the streets of Delft itself.

The city's bond with the House of Orange is lasting. William of Orange's tomb and the royal burial vault in the Nieuwe Kerk tie the city to the dynasty, and the statue of Hugo Grotius, the jurist born here in 1583 who laid foundations for international law, stands on the Markt near the Nieuwe Kerk.

Today Delft is equally a university city. TU Delft's students race solar cars across Australia, row for international trophies with the city's two student rowing clubs and fill the cafés of the Beestenmarkt. Celebrations centre on the Markt, where King's Night brings a party each April, and in summer the canals host a parade of flower-decorated boats from the Westland.

Delft had about 110,000 inhabitants at the start of 2026, with a large student population: TU Delft has about 26,500 students. Most residents now live outside the historic centre, in the post-war districts across the railway line, while the old town is a mix of student rooms, family homes, shops and the businesses that serve about a million registered visitors a year.

Education and research drive the economy. Besides the university, Delft is home to the applied research organisation TNO, the water institute Deltares and the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, which draws on the city's long tradition in water management and hydraulic engineering. Industry includes the remaining Delftware production, biotechnology and software firms, and the city is also the home of Inter IKEA Systems, the owner of the IKEA concept.

The rhythm of the day follows trains, bikes and lectures. Trains run to Rotterdam and The Hague every few minutes, and much of the old centre is closed to cars. The weekly market fills the Markt on Thursdays, and in summer the terraces of the squares fill up.

Delft's food is that of a Dutch market town. The Thursday market on the Markt and the Brabantse Turfmarkt, and the Saturday market on the Brabantse Turfmarkt, are the place to try herring or kibbeling, deep-fried battered fish. Indonesian and other Asian restaurants are well represented in the town.

Beer is the city's historic drink. The oldest known brewery in the Netherlands stood in Delft from about 1210, and its many breweries once exported to Zeeland and Flanders before the Eighty Years' War and competition from Rotterdam and Haarlem cut their number. Several old brewery buildings were taken over by Delftware potters, who often kept their names. The last of the old breweries closed in 1922, but the tradition has revived: the city brewery De Koperen Kat opened in 2011 and brews more than a dozen beers, and smaller craft breweries such as Joffer Craft and De Bolle Paap followed.

Eating out centres on the squares. The Beestenmarkt, once the cattle market, is lined with restaurants and cafés with outdoor seating, and the Markt, the Brabantse Turfmarkt and the streets around them fill with terraces in summer, some bars setting out terrace barges on the canals.