Voldersgracht Street, Delft

The Voldersgracht is one of the oldest canals in the city of Delft. It dates from at least 1348 . The Voldersgracht has the special feature that it is half a canal with a street on one side and houses on the water on the other. It owes its name to the cloth fullers who practiced their profession there in the Middle Ages . They used the moat to flush out their waste products: a mixture of urine , fuller 's earth and dirt from the fulled sheets.

The Voldersgracht as a possible location for the painting The Little Street by Vermeer has been speculated by several art historians. Vermeer's father's inn was located between the Markt and the Voldersgracht, so Vermeer must have been familiar with that view. Incidentally, there are more locations in Delft about which such theories exist.

The building of the St. Lucas Guild to which Vermeer was affiliated was also located on Voldersgracht. The lost building was reconstructed in 2006 and today serves as the Vermeer Center Delft , where the life and work of Vermeer is central.