Photos

It's my second visit to Delft. i like this beautiful city...
Please have a look my other Netherlands shots here and here (TrekLens)

Delft is more than 750 years old. The city owes its name to the word 'delving', digging the oldest canal, the Oude Delft. In 1246, Delft received its city franchise from the Dutch Earl Willem II. Delft flourished and new neighbourhoods were added. As early as 1355 the city reached the size it would remain until the 19th century.
On the 3rd of May 1536 the great fire broke out. How it started exactly is not known, but it is likely that the wooden spire of the Nieuwe Kerk was hit by lightning and flying sparks set the surrounding houses on fire. Some 2,300 houses went up in flames.
More than a hundred years later, in 1654, an explosion destroyed part of the city. The cellar of the former Poor Clares convent on Paardenmarkt was used to store gunpowder. This central warehouse for the region Holland contained some 80,000 pounds of gunpowder.
The consequences of the explosion were enormous - two hundred houses were razed to the ground, and roofs fell in and windows were smashed in another three hundred houses.
In 1660 a new gunpowder house was built about a mile outside the centre.

More than 400 years ago the Dutch East India Company was founded. It was one of the largest trading companies in the world with a fleet of more than one hundred ships, thousands of employees, offices in Asia and six sites in the Netherlands, of which one in Delft.
In 1602, Delft was a flourishing city, a centre of painting, arts, crafts and science. The foundation of the Dutch East India Company and the establishment of a branch in Delft added another important aspect - the trade with faraway countries. Spices, coffee, tea and Chinese porcelain now found their way to the Republic of the Netherlands and to Delft.
(delft.com)