Old Rhine and the Vecht. Pop. (1905) 114,321. It is an
important junction station 22 m. by rail S.S.E. of Amsterdam.
Tramways connect it with Vreeswyk on the Lek (where are the
large locks of the Merwede canal), Amsterdam, and by way of
De Bilt with Zeist, and thence with Arnhem. It is a picturesque
and interesting old town with more regular streets and shady
squares and fewer canals than most Dutch towns. It is an
important fortress, forming the principal point d’appui of the
line of defensive inundations called the “New Holland Water
Line,” in addition to its position as a railway centre. The
defences consist of an inner line of works which preserve the
place against surprise, and of an outlying chain of detached
forts of fairly modern construction, forming roughly two-thirds
of a circle of three miles radius. Of these the Works facing
the east would in war time cover the assembly of troops destined
to operate outside the Water Line, while those of the north and
south fronts would be surrounded by inundations and serve
chiefly to control the sluices. The line of the ancient ramparts,
demolished in 1830, is now only marked by the Singel, or outer
canal, which surrounds the oldest part of the city, with pleasant
gardens and promenades laid out on the inside. Two canals, the
Oude and the Nieuwe Gracht, intersect the town from end to end.
On the Oude Gracht the roadway and quay are on different levels,
the roadway lying over vaults, which open on the quay wall and
are used as cellars and poor dwelling-houses. On the east of the
town is the Maliebaan or Mall, consisting of an ancient triple
avenue of lime trees, now largely replanted. Utrecht is the seat
of a university, and of a Roman Catholic archbishopric. It
is also the seat of the archbishop of the Dutch Old Catholics.
The Domkerk, dedicated to St Martin, the former cathedral
church of the bishops of Utrecht, is a large Gothic building,
erected in 1254–1267 on the site of the original church founded
by St Willibrord about 720 and completed by Bishop Adelbold
about 1015. An open space forming the heart of the square
in which the church stands separates the solitary western tower
(14th century) from the choir and transept, the nave having
been blown down by a violent hurricane in 1674 and never
rebuilt. The interior (30 ft. wide and 115 ft. high) has been
clumsily fitted up with pews and galleries for Protestant worship,
so that the effect of its slender columns is spoilt. It contains
the monuments of Admiral van Gent (d. 1672) and of Bishops
Guy of Hainaut (d. 1317) and George of Egmont (d. 1559),
while in the crypt are preserved the hearts of the German
emperors Conrad II. (1039) and Henry V. (1125). The Roman
Catholic cathedral of St Catherine dates from 1524 and has been
restored in modern times. Other churches of very early foundation
in Utrecht are the Pieterskerk and the Janskerk. Attached
to the Domkerk by fine old Gothic cloisters is the university,
which was founded in 1634 and enlarged in 1894. The students
number some 750, and there are five faculties of theology, law,
medicine, mathematics and science, and letters. The aula
(restored in 1879) was originally the chapter-house of the
cathedral. Connected with the university are a valuable
library, occupying the palace built for Louis Bonaparte, king of
Holland, in 1807 and containing upwards of 200,000 volumes
and MSS.; a museum of natural history; an ophthalmic
institute; physical and chemical laboratories; a veterinary
school; a botanic garden; and an observatory. The archiepiscopal
museum (1872) contains examples of all branches
of sacred art in the Netherlands. In the Museum Kunstliefde
is a small picture-gallery, chiefly remarkable for some pictures
by Jan Scorel (1495–1562); the museum of antiquities contains
a miscellaneous collection. Other buildings of interest are the
museum of industrial art; the so-called “Pope’s house,” built in
1517 by Adrian Floriszoon Boeyens, afterwards Pope Adrian VI.,
and a native of Utrecht; the royal mint of Holland; the Fleshers’
Hall (1637); the home for the aged, occupying a 14th-century
mansion; the town hall (1830); and the large hospital
prison and barracks. The most important industrial establishments
are cigar manufactories, manufactories of chemicals and
earthenware, and brass foundries, and there is also an active
trade in the agricultural produce of the surrounding country.
The country round about Utrecht is pretty and plentifully studded with country houses, especially on the road to Arnhem. Close by, on the north-east, is the village of De Bilt, the seat of the Dutch Meteorological Institute. In this parish was formerly situated the famous Benedictine convent of Oostbroek, founded in the beginning of the 12th century. The abbey was demolished in 1850. The manor of Zuilen on the Vecht, four miles north-west of Utrecht, was partly held in fief from this abbey and partly from the bishops of Utrecht. The lords of Zuilen grew very powerful and built a castle here at the end of the 13th century. In 1302 this possession passed by marriage to the influential family of van Borsele, lords of Veere and governors of Zeeland. But on the extinction of that house towards the end of the 15th century the castle passed through various hands until it came by marriage in 1665 to the family of Baron van Tuyll van Serooskerke. The castle was carefully restored in 1752, and is still in excellent preservation. Five miles east of Utrecht is the village of Zeist, the seat of a Moravian settlement established here in 1746. There are also a fine castle (1667) and grounds, a sanatorium for children and numerous modern villa residences. At Ryzenburg, close by, is a Roman Catholic seminary, founded in connexion with the establishment of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in 1853 and practically serving as an archiepiscopal palace.
Utrecht (i.e. Oude Trecht or Old Ford, rendered in Latin documents Vetus Trajectum) is a city of great antiquity and much historic interest, especially as illustrating the growth of civic liberties during the middle ages. The place existed in Roman times and is mentioned in the itinerary of Antoninus. Though the name Trecht or Trajectum is almost universally found in old documents and on coins, the town was known by another name among the Frisians and Franks. Bede, writing in the 8th century, speaks of Wiltaburg, id est oppidum Willtorum, lingua autem Gallica Trajectum vocatur. That any such people as the Wilten existed there is little evidence, but Wiltaburg (or variants of it) occurs in chronicles as late as the 12th century, and it is still preserved in the name Wildenburg, given to a Roman camp near the city.
The earliest authentic record of the town is that of the building of a chapel—afterwards destroyed by the heathen Frisians—by Dagobert I., king of the Franks, in 636; but the importance of the place began when St Willibrord (q.v.), the apostle of the Frisians, established his see there. This fact determined the development of the city. The bishop's seat had to be fortified against the incursions of the heathen Frisians and Northmen, and the security thus afforded attracted population till, after the destruction of its rival Dorestad by the Normans in the 9th century, Utrecht became the chief commercial centre of the northern Netherlands. Bishop Balderic (A.D. 918–976) was the real founder of the prosperity of the town. On his accession to the see Utrecht had just been sacked by the Northmen. He succeeded in driving the raiders away, rebuilt the walls, and during the fifty-eight years of his episcopate the town grew and prospered. Its gradual acquisition of civic rights followed the same line of development as in the German episcopal cities. At first the bishop, holding immediately of the Empire, was supreme. In feudal subordination to him a royal count, who was also Vogt (advocatus) of the cathedral church of St Martin, had his seat at Utrecht as the chief town of the Gouw (Gau, pagus) of Ifterlake. In the 11th century a burgrave (châtelain, castellanus), who was an episcopal officer, is found exercising jurisdiction in the city as well as the Vogt. Bishop Godebald (1122–1127) granted to the inhabitants of Utrecht and of Muiden, the neighbouring port on the Zuider Zee, their first privileges, which were confirmed on the 22nd of June I 122 by the emperor Henry V., who died at Utrecht in 1125. The extant imperial charter does not specify what were the municipal rights that were conceded, but it is certain that at this time they were very limited. The magistrates, the Schout or high bailiff and his assessors, the Schepenen (scabini, échevins), were nominated by the burgrave from the order of knights. In 1196 we read for the first time of councillors (consules, consiliarii, adjurati) as assessors of the magistrates, but these, who a little later were known as the Raad or council, were also nominated. The position was simplified when, in 1220, Albert van Cuyck, the last of the hereditary burgraves, sold his rights to the bishop. These ecclesiastical princes were churchmen in little but name, and their desire to be absolute rulers found itself confronted by the determination of the burghers to secure greater independence. As the 13th century advanced, the council, representing the wealthy and powerful gild of merchants, began to take a larger share in the government, and to restrict more and more the direct exercise of the episcopal authority. Of the rise of the craft gilds in Utrecht there is no record. They appear suddenly as fully developed organized corporations, able to impose their will upon bishop and aristocracy. All through the 13th century a continual struggle went on, but at last the gilds were victorious and were able
