Highlights walking Tour in Delft with Audio and GPS Guide

The Paul Tétar van Elven museum is located in the home of the 19th century painter and passionate collector of art and antiques. In his will he stipulated that his house and its contents should be furnished as a museum after his death. In this way, a unique 19th century artist ensemble in our country has been preserved. The largely authentic interior still breathes the taste of the resident and his time. When you enter the atmospheric, lavishly furnished salon, you would not be surprised if the painter or his wife came to welcome you personally!

The Gemeenlandshuis from the early 1500s is the oldest house in Delft. As you will see, the owner must have been quite wealthy. He owed his fortune to the large beer production in the city. The decorations on the building still refer to this. People used to drink beer like water, because the water was too polluted to drink. Jan de Huyter was a tenant of hops and thus amassed a fortune. With that he was able to build this gigantic house. The hop cones on the house are a reminder of this. Furthermore, the Gothic house was given a high stepped gable that was intended as a lookout tower, an absolute status symbol for De Huyter.

The Prinsenhof Museum is a historically important place for the Netherlands. On this spot, William of Orange was shot dead by the Frenchman Balthasar Gerards on 10 July 1584. The former Sint Agatha monastery is among the Top 100 of the National Service for the Preservation of Monuments from 1990. The museum highlights Delft Blue, great Delft scientists such as Hugo de Groot and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and Delft masters such as William of Orange and the House of Orange-Nassau. The museum has a collection of paintings, pottery and utensils from the Golden Age.

The Hofje van Gratie is a courtyard for elderly men and women. In 1575, 6 houses were built on the Geer. 80 years later, Delft was hit by a major explosion in the gunpowder magazine. The damage to buildings and houses in the city was enormous. In 1660, a new courtyard was built on the Van der Mastenstraat, where the explosion had created a lot of space. Since then, the Hofje van Gratie has consisted of 7 houses under a continuous saddle roof. The houses are oriented towards the street, where each house has its own front door. This design was probably chosen because there was originally no room for a courtyard at the rear. The houses were intended for couples or double occupancy. The living rooms had a fireplace, a cupboard and a box bed. A gallery ran along the rear facades in which kitchens, privies and a washing area were housed.

The courtyard was built in 1707 from the estate of Elisabeth Pauw, the daughter of Delft mayor Jacob Pauw. She was the widow of Johan van der Dussen and then of his cousin Dirck van der Dussen, who were both also mayors. The courtyard was intended for poor people and consists of 8 houses, 2 rows of 4, with a square in between. The houses are currently used for people with a mental or multiple disability.

The Vermeercentrum is the largest museum about the painter Johannes Vermeer. You can not only admire his work here, you will also learn which pigments he worked with and how he made his paint.

The statue of Hugo de Groot. Hugo de Groot, born in Delft in 1583, was a jurist and writer. He wrote Latin tragedies and poems, theological treatises and Dutch poems. His most important works are in the field of history and law. His most famous work is on the law of war and peace. This forms the basis for modern international law.

Statue of William of Orange. William of Orange was a statesman and military leader who played a key role in the unleashing of the Eighty Years' War and the foundation of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands that emerged from it. In the Netherlands he is known as the Father of the Fatherland. The name William of Orange arose because he inherited the title Prince of Orange in 1544. On 10 July 1584, Balthasar Gerards shot William of Orange dead on the steps of the Prinsenhof in Delft. Gerards received a reward for this from King Philip II of Spain, who accused William of Orange of high treason.

The Koornbeurs is a national monument that started in 1295. The stone cellars were intended for the storage of meat, which was traded in the wooden halls above. After these wooden halls were lost during the great city fire, they were rebuilt in 1650, but then of stone. In 1871, the Koornbeurs was established here, which gave its name to the building. It has had all kinds of purposes since then.

The Blue Heart, is made by artist Marcel Smink. The work has a contemporary relationship with its historical surroundings. The striking technical construction of the statue refers to the Technical University, the blue to Delft blue, and the heart stands for the heart of the city.