Delft 6

The last city on my tour of the region on 1 July 2017 was Delft. This city is located in the province of Zuid-Holland between The Hague and Rotterdam. Delft is a popular tourist attraction in the country. It is home to Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), regarded as center of technological research and development in the Netherlands, Delft Blue pottery and the currently reigning House of Orange-Nassau. Historically, Delft played a highly influential role in the Dutch Golden Age. Delft has a special place in the history of microbiology. In terms of science and technology, thanks to the pioneering contributions of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek and Martinus Beijerinck, Delft can be considered to be the true birthplace of microbiology. The painter Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) was born in Delft. Vermeer used Delft streets and home interiors as the subject or background in his paintings.

The city of Delft came into being beside a canal, the 'Delf', which comes from the word delven, meaning delving or digging, and led to the name Delft. It presumably started around the 11th century as a landlord court. From a rural village in the early Middle Ages, Delft developed into a city, that in 1246 received its charter.

The town's association with the House of Orange started when William of Orange (Willem van Oranje), nicknamed William the Silent (Willem de Zwijger), took up residence in 1572. At the time he was the leader of growing national Dutch resistance against Spanish occupation, known as the Eighty Years' War. By then Delft was one of the leading cities of Holland and it was equipped with the necessary city walls to serve as a headquarters. An attack by Spanish forces in October of that year was repelled.

After the Act of Abjuration was proclaimed in 1581, Delft became the de facto capital of the newly independent Netherlands, as the seat of the Prince of Orange. When William was shot dead in 1584 by Balthazar Gerards in the hall of the Prinsenhof, the family's traditional burial place in Breda was still in the hands of the Spanish. Therefore, he was buried in the Delft Nieuwe Kerk (New Church), starting a tradition for the House of Orange that has continued to the present day.

In Delfgauw I took the bus to the centre of Delft and I looked for a post office close to the train station. I found a package point in a Vivánt cigar shop. By coincidence the owner did not only have the new postmark, but also the old postmark for this location.

The stamp on the envelope is from the Mooi Nederland (Beautiful Netherlands) series from 2014 showing Delft blue ceramics. A nice matching stamp.

City/town:       Delft

Municipality:   Delft

Area:              24,06 km²

Population:    102.230 (May 2018)

Website:        delft.nl

Package point

Vivánt Delft Centrum

Brabantse Turfmarkt 49

2611 CL  DELFT

(this shop closed in October 2017)

Date sent: 1 July 2017

Date postmark: 1 July 2017

Date received: 4 July 2017

Number of days: 3

Envelope in collection: 210