Utrecht › Places and landmarks
Dom Church
Domkerk
What is left of Utrecht’s Gothic cathedral: the choir and transept, cut off from their tower since the nave fell in 1674.
Photo: Jan dijkstra, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The cathedral of Saint Martin was begun in 1254 in the Gothic style of the French cathedrals, on the spot where the first bishops of Utrecht had built their churches since the 7th century. It took nearly three centuries to build and was never quite finished.
On 1 August 1674 a tornado blew down its nave, which had no flying buttresses to hold it. The rubble was not cleared until 1826. The Domplein now fills the gap, with the outline of the old nave set out in its paving, and under it lie the remains of the Roman fort that Utrecht grew out of. The church has been Protestant since 1580. Visit it in 3D ›
More in Utrecht
Dom TowerThe tallest church tower in the Netherlands, 112 metres of Gothic brick and stone, standing on its own since a storm blew down the nave.
PandhofThe quiet cloister garden beside the Dom Church, planted with the herbs of a medieval monastery garden.
OudegrachtUtrecht’s medieval canal, with its quays down at the water and the old cellars under the street now full of cafés.
JanskerkhofThe leafy square round the Janskerk, with a flower market every Saturday.
PieterskerkOne of the oldest churches in the Netherlands, a Romanesque church of 1048 with a crypt under its choir.
Museum SpeelklokA museum of self-playing music, from music boxes to great dance organs, inside the medieval Buurkerk.
AcademiegebouwThe main building of Utrecht University on the Domplein, where the Union of Utrecht was signed in 1579.
PaushuizeThe house on the Kromme Nieuwegracht built for Adrian of Utrecht, who became the only Dutch pope.
Museum CatharijneconventThe national museum of Christian art and history, in a medieval convent on the Oudegracht.
Centraal MuseumThe oldest city museum in the Netherlands, with the Utrecht painters of the Golden Age and the furniture of Gerrit Rietveld.
MiffyDick Bruna’s little white rabbit, born in Utrecht in 1955, who even has her own traffic lights in the town.