Where to Stay in Delft, Provincie Zuid-Holland

What is Delft known for?

Delft is known for its canal-laced old town, its historic ceramics, and the Nieuwe Kerk that rises over the Markt. The pottery made its name. Its blue-and-white ceramics carried the town's fame far beyond Zuid-Holland, while the Oude Kerk leans beside the water and the Prinsenhof holds the memory of the old court.

Between Rotterdam and The Hague, it keeps an intimate scale.

What are the main landmarks in Delft?

Delft gathers its landmarks around the Markt and along the old canals. Two churches define the skyline. The Nieuwe Kerk rises over the Markt while the Oude Kerk leans beside the water, and nearby the Prinsenhof, the Vermeer Centre, and the medieval Oostpoort gate carry the town's story from the old court to its painters.

What is the history of Delft?

Delft grew from a canal dug across the marshy land of Zuid-Holland, and the water gave the town both its name and its shape. The canal made the place. Granted its town rights in 1246, the settlement rose along the dug watercourse that ran through the low fields, its houses lining the banks as trade moved by boat between the fields and the sea.

The court came next. The Prinsenhof, once a convent, became a residence of the House of Orange, and the Nieuwe Kerk on the Markt grew into the burial church of the dynasty over the centuries. Craft carried it further.

The town's kilns turned out the blue-and-white ceramics that spread its name across Holland and beyond, a trade that filled the workshops behind the canals. Fire and war left their marks. A great gunpowder blast tore through the town in the seventeenth century, and rebuilding shaped much of the centre that stands along the canals between Rotterdam and The Hague.

The painters gave it lasting fame. Delft became the home of a school of light-filled painting, and the Vermeer Centre keeps that memory alive near the Oude Kerk.

Where is Delft?

Delft lies in Zuid-Holland between Rotterdam to the south-east and The Hague to the north-west, on the flat land in the west of the Netherlands. Canals thread the town. The old centre is cut by ringed waterways that lace the streets around the Markt, and the low fields of the Randstad spread flat on every side toward the neighbouring cities.

What is the climate of Delft?

Delft has a mild temperate climate shaped by the nearby North Sea to the west. The sea softens the year. Cool wet winters and mild cloudy summers cross the flat land of Zuid-Holland, the sea winds carrying rain over the canals and the low fields between Rotterdam and The Hague.

How do you get to Delft?

Delft is reached by rail and road from across Zuid-Holland and the wider Netherlands. Trains run through it often. The main line between Rotterdam and The Hague stops at Delft, tying the town to both neighbouring cities and on to the rest of the Randstad, while roads cross the flat land in every direction.