Accueil – Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts de Belgique. The Kremer Collection Fondation Aetas Aurea Home. Het springen van de kruittoren in Delft, 12 oktober 1654 - Memory of the Netherlands - Online image database of archives, museums and libraries. Egbert van der Poel | A View of Delft after the Explosion of 1654 | NG1061. On Monday, 12 October, 1654, shortly after half past eleven in the morning, one of Delft's gunpowder stores exploded and destroyed a large part of the city.
This painting by van der Poel shows the terrible damage caused by the explosion. In the distance against the horizon the two major churches of the city, the Oude and the Niewe Kerk, stand relatively intact. Between them is the Town Hall tower. The church on the extreme right is the chapel of the Hospital of St George in Noordeinde.To the right of the picture is the area where the gunpowder had been stored; all that remains are a crater filled with water, some burnt trees, roofless houses, and piles of rubble.
When the store exploded, it contained about 90,000 pounds of gunpowder. Frans Hals - The complete works. The Museum of the Netherlands - in Amsterdam. The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Home.