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DELFT History
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Before the separation in 1585 of the Low Countries (or Netherlands) in a prostestant North (now Holland) and a catholic South (now Belgium), Delft was a typical town of this area of Europe. In the Middle-Ages, Delft was a city of weavers and brewers, with numerous convents and monasteries.

During the religious troubles of the low countries in the middle of the 16th century, Delft became more important when William of Orange, who spearheaded the revolt against the Catholic Spanish Domination of the Netherlands, choose the city as his military headquarters. He took up residence in the Prinsenhof, a former monastery. It was in this same building that he was killed in 1584 by Balthasar Gerard, a fanatical catholic. William of Orange lies buried in a splendid late-Renaissance mausoleum in Delft's "Nieuwe Kerk" (new church).

One third of the city was destroyed in october 1654, when a gunpowder store  hidden in the garden of a convent exploded. During this catastrophy 200 people were killed.

The important medieval harbour Delftshaven lies close to Delft. This is the reason why the city becomes of the six seats of the "Oostindische Compagnie - VOC" (the East-Indian Company) in 1631. This results in frequent contacts with the orient, and the traders bring from their travel a new product : Chinese porcelain. Delft starts to copy this beautifully decorative art form and is now famous for its own version : Blue Delftware.

After the golden age of the 17th and the early18th centuries, Delft enters the 19th century with much less prosperity, since the trade, the delft-ware potteries and the weaveries have mostly disappeared. In 1842, however, King William I founds the "Royal Academy of Engineering" in Delft wich would later develop into the world-famous "Technical University of Delft".In 1876, the only remaining Delft-ware factory "De Porceleyne Fles" is reanimated and remains , until today, the most important (and certainly the oldest) epresentative of this typical Delft industry.

 

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