The Delft Thunderclap
On an autumn morning in 1654 Delft was startled by a bang heard in distant towns: the town’s powder magazine had exploded. In a few moments a whole quarter turned into a smoking crater. That disaster has been called ever since the Delft Thunderclap.
1 The bang that opened the town
In a tower at the edge of the town lay a great store of gunpowder, ton upon ton, for the army of the Republic. On the morning of 12 October 1654 that store, for a reason no one knows for certain, went up all at once. The explosion was so violent that houses were blasted away streets off, windows shattered as far as The Hague, and the bang was heard at great distance. Where the quarter had stood, a water-filled pit gaped.
2 What was lost and what remained
The number of dead and wounded was great, and among the victims was the painter Carel Fabritius, one of the most talented pupils of Rembrandt. Many of his paintings were destroyed with his studio, so that little of his work remained; for that very reason every surviving canvas, like the delicate Goldfinch, became a treasure. Delft rebuilt itself, but the memory of the Thunderclap stayed, a warning of how thin the line is between an ordinary morning and a disaster that rises out of the ground.
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Heimweer.be — Europees Erfgoed Bewaard
