In the city of Delft, province of South Holland, Netherlands

 "Whenever I found something remarkable, I have thought it my duty to put down my discovery on paper, so that all ingenious people be informed thereof." -- Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

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(in the province of South Holland, Netherlands) The city of Delft is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, and The Hague, to the northwest. Together with them, it is part of both the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area and the Randstad. A popular tourist destination, Delft is famous for its connections with the House of Orange-Nassau, for its blue pottery, for being home to the painter Jan Vermeer, and for hosting the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). Historically, Delft played a highly influential role in the Dutch Golden Age. (In terms of science and technology, thanks to the contributions of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek and Martinus Beijerinck, Delft is considered to be the birthplace of microbiology.)

+ In western Netherlands, Delft lies along the Schie River. Founded in 1075 and chartered in 1246, it was damaged by fire in 1536 and by the explosion of a powder magazine in 1654. Delft was a trade center in the 16th and 17th centuries and was famous for its tin-glazed earthenware, or delftware, but was superseded in trade by Rotterdam in the 18th century. Principal manufactures are now ceramics, spirits, oils, penicillin, yeast, and machinery.

+ Delft's technical university was founded in 1842 as the Royal Academy; its hydraulic laboratories designed the Delta Plan for the restriction of the Rhine and Meuse estuaries. The medieval Old Church contains memorials to the admirals Maarten Tromp and Piet Heyn -- and to Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, a native of Delft. The New Church (formerly St. Ursula’s) contains tombs of the members of the house of Orange-Nassau and of the jurist Hugo Grotius, whose statue is in the marketplace. The Prinsenhof, where William the Silent was assassinated in 1584), was a convent before it became his residence; it is now the town museum. Other landmarks include the Renaissance-style Town Hall; around a medieval tower, the Armamentarium (a 17th-century armory), the Paul Tetar van Elven Museum, and the Huis Lambert van Meerten Museum, with an international collection of earthenware tiles. (Johannes Vermeer is the best known of the many painters born in Delft.)

+ An amalgam of austere medieval magnificence and Golden Age glory, Delft's exquisite town center is a hugely popular Dutch day-trip destination, crowded with visitors strolling its narrow streets and central Markt. The center is time-capsule-like, having changed little since Golden Age artist Johannes Vermeer, who was born in Delft and lived his whole life here, painted his famous View of Delft in 1660–61.
+ In the 15th century a canal was dug to the Maas river, connecting it with the small port of Delfshaven and increasing trade. In the 17th century, artisans started to produce Delftware, the distinctive blue-and-white pottery originally duplicated from Chinese porcelain.