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Roots Earth in Delft: audio stories about 40 places

Roots Earth has audio stories about 40 places in Delft, Netherlands, in Europe. The Delft stories are in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The app needs no account: open Delft, pick a place on the city's map of places and play. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people.

The 40 places are listed below in the order the app shows them, and again further down with their coordinates. The lists were taken from the Roots Earth catalogue on 15 September 2026.

Published 16 September 2026. Markdown: delft.md

The 40 places in Delft with audio stories

In the order the app shows them.

  1. Nieuwe Kerk (New Church)
  2. Tomb of William the Silent
  3. Oude Kerk (Old Church)
  4. Markt (Market Square)
  5. Delft City Hall
  6. Museum Het Prinsenhof
  7. Assassination Site of William of Orange
  8. Royal Delft (De Porceleyne Fles)
  9. Vermeer Centrum Delft
  10. Oostpoort (Eastern Gate)
  11. Windmill De Roos
  12. Hugo Grotius Statue
  13. Saint Hippolytus Chapel
  14. Gemeenlandshuis (Delfland Water Board House)
  15. View of Delft Vantage Point (Hooikade)
  16. The Little Street (Vlamingstraat)
  17. Grave of Johannes Vermeer
  18. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Memorial
  19. Oude Delft Canal
  20. Delft Synagogue
  21. IHE Delft Institute for Water Education
  22. Delft Railway Station
  23. Delft University of Technology Campus
  24. TU Delft Library
  25. Reactor Institute Delft
  26. De Delftse Pauw Pottery
  27. Agnetapark
  28. Delftse Hout
  29. Beestenmarkt
  30. Brabantse Turfmarkt Market
  31. Paardenmarkt (Delft Thunderclap Site)
  32. Hof van Delft
  33. Vrijenban
  34. Tanthof
  35. KSV Sanctus Virgilius (Virgiel)
  36. DSR Proteus-Eretes Boathouse
  37. DSV Concordia
  38. Den Hoorn
  39. Midden-Delfland Countryside
  40. Ackerdijkse Plassen

Is there an audio guide for Nieuwe Kerk (New Church)?

Yes. Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) has its audio stories in the Roots Earth app: a short introduction and a deeper story, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian.

It is place 1 of the 40 Delft places in the app, at 52.0123, 4.3609. Every one of the other 39 places in the list above has the same two stories.

Roots Earth is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself.

How to use Roots Earth in Delft

Open Roots Earth and choose Delft. The city has its own map of places with all 40 of them on it. Tap the place you are standing in front of, or any other, and play its short introduction or its deeper story. You decide what to listen to and in which order.

You can listen in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian, and there is no account. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection.

In full

All 40 places in Delft, in the app's order, with their coordinates.

All 40 places in Delft, with coordinates

Every place below has a short introduction and a deeper story in the Roots Earth app, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the one line descriptions are the app's own catalogue values of 15 September 2026; a place without a line here has none that this page can print.

1. Nieuwe Kerk (New Church)

Coordinates
52.0123, 4.3609
In one line
A late Gothic church begun in 1381, with the stone basilica begun in 1384 on Delft's central square, crowned by a 108. 75-metre tower, the second tallest church tower in the Netherlands. Since 1584 it has been the burial church of the Dutch royal House of Orange-Nassau.

2. Tomb of William the Silent

Coordinates
52.0124, 4.3612
In one line
An elaborate marble and bronze mausoleum in the Nieuwe Kerk, sculpted by Hendrick de Keyser and his son Pieter and completed in 1623. It honours William the Silent and became the model for later Dutch royal tombs.

3. Oude Kerk (Old Church)

Coordinates
52.0125, 4.35528
In one line
Delft's oldest church, founded in the early 13th century, famous for its leaning 75-metre brick tower beside the canal. The painter Johannes Vermeer and the microscopist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek are buried within its Gothic interior.

4. Markt (Market Square)

Coordinates
52.01167, 4.35917
In one line
Delft's grand central square, among the largest historic market squares in Europe, paved in 1484 and framed by the Nieuwe Kerk at one end and the Renaissance city hall at the other. It still hosts markets, festivals and city life.

5. Delft City Hall

Coordinates
52.01139, 4.35778
In one line
A Dutch Renaissance town hall on the Markt, rebuilt by Hendrick de Keyser between 1618 and 1620 after a fire, wrapped around a surviving medieval stone tower. Its sculpted sandstone front faces the Nieuwe Kerk across the square.

6. Museum Het Prinsenhof

Coordinates
52.012, 4.354
In one line
A former Saint Agatha convent that became William of Orange's residence in 1572 and the place where he was assassinated in 1584. Now a city museum of the Dutch Revolt, it still shows the bullet holes near the staircase.

7. Assassination Site of William of Orange

Coordinates
52.01215, 4.35405
In one line
The staircase in the Prinsenhof where William of Orange was shot dead by Balthasar Gérard on the tenth of July 1584. The bullet holes in the wall survive, marking one of history's first assassinations of a head of state by handgun.

8. Royal Delft (De Porceleyne Fles)

Coordinates
51.9994, 4.364
In one line
Founded in 1653, this is the only survivor of the 32 Delftware potteries that once worked the city. Painters still hand-decorate the blue-and-white earthenware here, and the factory earned its royal title in 1919.

9. Vermeer Centrum Delft

Coordinates
52.01222, 4.35944
In one line
An interpretation centre devoted to Johannes Vermeer, housed in a rebuilt version of Delft's old Guild of Saint Luke. It uses scale reproductions, not originals, to explore the painter's life, his light and his methods.

10. Oostpoort (Eastern Gate)

Coordinates
52.01111, 4.36806
In one line
Delft's only surviving medieval city gate, built around 1400 in brick Gothic style. Its twin towers gained octagonal upper floors and tall spires around 1510. The other gates were demolished in the 1840s, leaving this one mirrored in the canal.

11. Windmill De Roos

Coordinates
52.01389, 4.35139
In one line
A working grain mill on Delft's old western rampart, brought to this spot in 1679. The sole survivor of the eighteen windmills that once stood on the city's fortifications, it still grinds flour and welcomes visitors today.

12. Hugo Grotius Statue

Coordinates
52.0117, 4.3598
In one line
A bronze statue on the Markt honouring Hugo Grotius, the Delft-born jurist regarded as the father of international law. Unveiled in 1886 and sculpted by Franciscus Leonardus Stracké, it shows him gazing out over his native city's marketplace.

13. Saint Hippolytus Chapel

Coordinates
52.011209, 4.356608
In one line
A small Gothic chapel consecrated in 1412, built for a community of religious sisters and badly damaged in the great fire of 1536. For decades it hosted the doctoral ceremonies of Delft's technical university before returning to Catholic worship.

14. Gemeenlandshuis (Delfland Water Board House)

Coordinates
52.0118, 4.3556
In one line
A late Gothic mansion of 1505 on the Oude Delft, its ornate sandstone facade carved with coats of arms. Since 1645 it has been the seat of the Delfland water board, founded in 1289 to guard the low-lying region from flooding.

15. View of Delft Vantage Point (Hooikade)

Coordinates
52.0059, 4.3615
In one line
The harbour-side spot near where Johannes Vermeer painted his famous cityscape around 1660. Across the water, the towers of the Oude Kerk and Nieuwe Kerk still rise above the rooftops much as they did in his canvas.

16. The Little Street (Vlamingstraat)

Coordinates
52.0137, 4.363
In one line
The Vlamingstraat site identified in 2015 as the setting of Vermeer's painting The Little Street. The artist captured an ordinary Delft back street, with brick houses, a passageway, and women at quiet domestic work around 1658.

17. Grave of Johannes Vermeer

Coordinates
52.01255, 4.3554
In one line
The burial place of Johannes Vermeer inside the Oude Kerk, where the painter was laid to rest in December 1675. A plain memorial stone marks the spot, a quiet contrast to the worldwide fame that came two centuries after his death.

18. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Memorial

Coordinates
52.01243, 4.3552
In one line
The memorial in the Oude Kerk to Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, the Delft draper and self-taught microscopist who first revealed the world of microorganisms. Born in 1632 and buried here in 1723, he is honoured as the father of microbiology.

19. Oude Delft Canal

Coordinates
52.0098, 4.3557
In one line
The oldest canal in Delft and the waterway the town grew along. Its name gives the city its own, from the Dutch word for digging, and its banks carry centuries of merchant houses, water-board halls, and leaning church towers.

20. Delft Synagogue

Coordinates
52.008896, 4.359964
In one line
A neoclassical synagogue on the Koornmarkt, completed in 1862 for Delft's small Jewish community. The building survived the Second World War that destroyed the community itself, and now serves as a cultural centre and place of worship and remembrance.

21. IHE Delft Institute for Water Education

Coordinates
52.00861, 4.35694
In one line
The world's largest international graduate school for water education, based in Delft since 1957. Operating under the auspices of UNESCO, it has trained more than twenty-three thousand water professionals from over one hundred ninety countries.

22. Delft Railway Station

Coordinates
52.00667, 4.35667
In one line
Delft's railway station, opened in 2015, sits inside a tunnel below the city and shares its hall with the town hall. Designed by Mecanoo, its ceiling carries a giant historic map of Delft.

23. Delft University of Technology Campus

Coordinates
52.00167, 4.3725
In one line
Founded in 1842 by King William II, Delft University of Technology is the oldest and largest technical university in the Netherlands. Its modern campus south of the centre gathers eight faculties, around 27,000 students and landmark buildings.

24. TU Delft Library

Coordinates
52.00278, 4.37556
In one line
Completed in 1997 by Mecanoo, the TU Delft Library hides beneath a vast sloping lawn pierced by a 40-metre steel cone. The largest technical library in the Netherlands, it is celebrated as one of the world's most beautiful.

25. Reactor Institute Delft

Coordinates
51.9905, 4.3806
In one line
The Reactor Institute Delft houses the only nuclear research reactor in Dutch higher education, a pool-type reactor begun in 1958. Part of TU Delft, it drives neutron and positron research and produces medical isotopes for diagnosing and treating cancer.

26. De Delftse Pauw Pottery

Coordinates
52.0239, 4.3478
In one line
De Delftse Pauw, the Delft Peacock, was a Delftware pottery on the city's northern edge, one of the few keeping the tradition of fully hand-painted blue-and-white earthenware alive. It drew tens of thousands of visitors each year before closing.

27. Agnetapark

Coordinates
52.01611, 4.34583
In one line
Agnetapark is a leafy workers' garden village built from 1882 by Delft industrialist Jacob van Marken for his factory staff and named after his wife, Agneta Matthes. The first garden village in the Netherlands, it has been a protected monument since 1989.

28. Delftse Hout

Coordinates
52.0214, 4.3781
In one line
Delftse Hout is the recreation area and woodland on the northeast edge of Delft, built around De Grote Plas, a lake left by sand digging for new neighbourhoods. Locals come to swim, cycle, walk and camp among its trees and water.

29. Beestenmarkt

Coordinates
52.0106, 4.3613
In one line
A tree-shaded square a short walk from the Markt where cattle were once traded. Today it is Delft's liveliest terrace, ringed with cafes and bars, busy in every season and frozen into an ice rink each winter.

30. Brabantse Turfmarkt Market

Coordinates
52.0095, 4.3601
In one line
A canal-side street whose name records the trade in turf, the peat that once heated and fired Delft. Today its waterside houses, shops and cafes make it a quietly lived-in stretch of the old city, away from the busiest squares.

31. Paardenmarkt (Delft Thunderclap Site)

Coordinates
52.0152, 4.3637
In one line
A broad open square that was once Delft's horse market, built over the crater of the 1654 gunpowder explosion known as the Delft Thunderclap, which killed over 100 people, levelled a quarter of the city and destroyed the painter Carel Fabritius.

32. Hof van Delft

Coordinates
52.01167, 4.34722
In one line
A neighbourhood in northwest Delft whose name, meaning Court of Delft, survives from a former rural municipality that existed from 1817 until it merged into the growing city in 1921, once stretching across villages like Den Hoorn and 't Woudt.

33. Vrijenban

Coordinates
52.01806, 4.36306
In one line
A neighbourhood on the northeast edge of Delft's old centre, named for a former rural municipality with a long and tangled administrative past, finally merged into the city in 1921. Its old town hall still stands by the Reineveldbrug over the Schie.

34. Tanthof

Coordinates
51.98333, 4.36222
In one line
A low-rise residential quarter in the south of Delft, built in the 1970s and 1980s along the lines of old creeks. Home to around 14,000 people, it is split into Tanthof-West and Tanthof-East, linked only by paths for cyclists and walkers.

35. KSV Sanctus Virgilius (Virgiel)

Coordinates
52.009, 4.3565
In one line
Delft's Catholic student society, founded in 1898 and known as Virgiel, housed in a former convent of 1405 on the Oude Delft canal. One of the largest student associations in the city, it counts thousands of members past and present.

36. DSR Proteus-Eretes Boathouse

Coordinates
52.002, 4.3625
In one line
Delft's student rowing club, born from a 1970 merger of Proteus and Eretes, keeps the largest fleet of any student rowing club in the Netherlands and has sent members all the way to the Olympic podium.

37. DSV Concordia

Coordinates
52.0306, 4.3723
In one line
One of Delft's oldest sports clubs, founded in 1885, Concordia gathers cricket, football, golf and tennis at Sportpark Brasserskade. It is remembered as the club of Jan Thomée, an Olympic bronze medallist in the early days of Dutch football.

38. Den Hoorn

Coordinates
52.00139, 4.33167
In one line
A village on Delft's southwestern edge in the municipality of Midden-Delfland, home to around 8,000 people. It is known for its Sint Antonius en Corneliuskerk and a lively August water parade, the Varend Corso.

39. Midden-Delfland Countryside

Coordinates
51.98333, 4.31667
In one line
A protected band of polder meadows and dairy farms between Delft, The Hague and Rotterdam, formed as a municipality in 2004. This green buffer keeps open country alive in one of the most crowded corners of the Netherlands.

40. Ackerdijkse Plassen

Coordinates
51.9775, 4.40833
In one line
A wetland nature reserve of lakes and marsh south of Delft, ranked among the most important bird areas in the Netherlands. Closed to the public to protect its 115 breeding bird species, it is managed by Natuurmonumenten and circled by paths.

Roots Earth in short

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