Delft

Delft is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands, lying between Rotterdam to the southeast and The Hague to the northwest, and forming part of the Rotterdam-The Hague metropolitan area and the Randstad. It grew up beside a canal called the Delf, from which its name comes, and received its city charter from Count Willem II on 15 April 1246. After 1581 it became the de facto capital of the new Dutch Republic as the seat of the Prince of Orange, and William the Silent is buried in its Nieuwe Kerk, starting a tradition for the House of Orange. In the Dutch Golden Age it was home to the painter Johannes Vermeer and the scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, and it became famous for Delftware, a blue and white pottery. The gunpowder explosion of 12 October 1654 destroyed much of the city. Today it is the home of Delft University of Technology.