Photos

From my recent Trip in Delft, Netherlands.
Delft is more than 750 years old. Its name is derived from 'delven' which means digging. Delfts oldest canal is called The Old Delft (de Oude Delft). In 1246 Delft got city rights, granted by Holland's Duke William II. Delft grew prosperous and new neighbourhoods were added to the city. In 1355 it reached the size it would remain at until the 1900s.

In 1536 a big fire destroyed 2300 houses. Most likely lightning struck the tower of The New Church. About 100 years later, in 1654, an explosion destroyed large parts of town; a warehouse with 80,000 pounds of gunpowder blew up. A new warehouse (Kruithuis) was later built, outside the city perimeter.

Delft has long been a centre of art and science. With the foundation of the VOC (Dutch East India Company) in 1602, Delft also became a trading center. The VOC was at one time the largest trading company in the world, with a huge fleet and offices all over Asia. One of the Dutch offices was in Delft.

In 1842 the Royal Academy for Civil Engineering (Koninklijke Acedemie voor Burgerlijke Ingenieurs) is founded. Nowadays know as Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) it is Delfts biggest employer. About 13.000 students study in Delft.

Source :wikitravel
More pictures from Delft here