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312 Route 38. DELFT. From Rotterdam
The building has been re ored and is now Open to the public; 10 to
5 from May ist to Sept. 30th, 10-4 from Oct. {st to 45th Nov. and from
Feb. 16th to April 30th, and 10-3 from Noy. 16th to Feb. 15th; on Sun.
and holidays not before 1 p.m. By passing through the door opposite
the tower of the Oude Kerk and crossing the court, we reach the spot
where the tragedy took place, on the first floor, to the right by the stair-
case. It is marked by an inscription. The murderer, a Burgundian named
Balthasar Gerards, who was prompted by a desire to gain the price set
upon the hero’s head by Alexander Farnese, took up his position in front
of the spot thus indicated, and when he discharged his pistol quite
close to his victim. who was ascending the staircase w
Jacent, to the left, is the so-called Histor
iscences of the Prince.
__ The first floor is occupied by the GemeENtr Museum (adm. daily, ex
Sun. and holidays, 10 to 3 or 4, 25c¢.; on Wed. 10c.), contsining c
medals, banners of the Delft ‘Schuttery’ (47-18th cent.), 40U0 prints etc.,
old views and plans (one of 1536, made after the fire mentioned on p. 311),
municipal antiquities. and paintings. Among the last are: Rochus Delf,
Corporation-piece; View of the tower of the Nieuwe Kerk before the fire of
1536; P. van Asch and H. Verschuring, View of Delft (1669); If. van Heems-
kerck, Descent from the Cross.
A few paces to the N. of the Prinsenhof is the Huis Lambert
van Meerten (Pl. 4; A, 3), a government museum of applied art,
opened in 1909. Admission daily 10-4 (in winter 10-3); on Sun.
12.30-4. Director, Prof. A. Le Comte.
Opposite the Prinsenhof, on the site of an earlier church, is
situated the Gothic Oupz Kerx (Pl. B, 3, 4), erected after 1250,
with a somewhat leaning tower and wooden vaulting of 1574. Tickets
of admission (20 c., including a printed description) at the book-
shop, Oude Kerkstraat 5. No admission on Sunday. Sacristan, Oude
Kerkstraat 3.
To the left of the choir is the monument of Admiral Maarten Tromp
(d. 1653), erected by Rombout Verhulst and Willem de Keyser from the designs
of Jac. van Campen. The Admiral was the victor in thirty -two yal
battles, the last of which, fought against the English (at Terheide, 1653),
and the occasion of his death, is represented on the monument. After
defeating the English fleet under Blake near the ‘Dunes’ in 1652, he caused
a broom ‘to be hoisted to his masthead, to signify that he had swept the
channel clear of his enemies. — Piet Hein (d. 1629), the admiral of the
Indian Company, who in 1628 captured the Spanish ‘silver fleet’, with its
. 18 commemorated by a mon-
o
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al Room, with some remin-
pt
precious freight valued at 12 million florin
ument in the choir, executed by Pieter de Keyser, eldest son of Hendrik
de Keyser, The Latin inscription records that ‘like a new Argonaut he
fetched from the new Colchis the Golden Fleece of the King of Spain’. —
A monument with a medallion- figure (in the vestibule) marks the tomb
of the naturalist Leeuwenhoek, a native of Delft (16 ). Another inter-
esting monument (in the chapel to the left of the choir) is that of Elizabeth
Morgan (d. 1608), a daughter of Philip van Marnix (p. 290), erected in 1655
and restored in 1856. — The carved pulpit, dating from the middle of the
{6th cent., resembles that at The Hague (p. 335).
The choir of the Nrevwz Kerx (PI. ©, 4), formerly the Church
of St. Ursula, in the Groote Markt, another Gothic edifice, built in
1396-1496, contains a magnificent “Monument by Hendrik de Keyser
(1608-19), erected by the United Provinces to the memory of
William of Orange. The tower is 375 ft. in height. Tickets (25 c.;
including a printed description) at Reynders’ fayence-shop, Groote
Markt 45. No admission on Sunday. Sacristan, Groote Markt 79. |
