Paushuize

The house on the Kromme Nieuwegracht built for Adrian of Utrecht, who became the only Dutch pope.

Photo: China Crisis, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Adriaan Florensz, born in Utrecht in 1459, taught at Leuven and tutored the young emperor Charles V. He had this house built for when he would come home, but in 1522 he was elected pope as Adrian VI, the only Dutchman ever to be pope.

He died in Rome the next year and never lived in it. The house now belongs to the province, which uses it for receptions. 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.

Dom ChurchWhat is left of Utrecht’s Gothic cathedral: the choir and transept, cut off from their tower since the nave fell in 1674.

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.

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.