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438 Route 54. UTRECHT. History.
Principal Attractions (1/2 day): Oude Gracht (p. 439), Cathedral (p. 439),
University (p. 440), Archiepiscopal Museum (p. 440) or Antiquarian Museum
(p. 442).
Utrecht, the capital of the Dutch province of that name, with
116,800 inhab. (1/3 Rom. Cath.), is situated on the Rhine, which
here divides into the old Rhine and the Vecht. It is the Trajec-
tum ad Rhenum (ford of the Rhine) of the Romans, subsequently
called Wiltaburg by the Frisians and Franks, and is one of the
most ancient towns in the Netherlands. It is the see of both a
Roman Catholic and an Old Catholic archbishop, — Utrecht is the
most important centre for the internal trade of the Netherlands
and is the junction of important railways and the seat of railway
workshops.
DagobertI., King of the E. Franks (628-638), founded here the first church
in the territory of the Frisians, whose bishop St. Willibrordus became
in 696. The archbishops of Utrecht were among the most powerful of
mediteval prelates, and-the town was celebrated at an early period for
the beauty of its churches. It first belonged to Lorraine, and then to the
German Empire, and was frequently the residence of the emperors. The
Emp. Conrad Il. died here in 1039, and the Emp. Henry V., in 1125, and
both were interred in the cathedral of Spires. Bishop Henry of Baden
resigned the temporal power to Emp. Charles V. in 1517, and that mon-
arch, with Rombout Keldermans (p. 160) as his architect, erected the
Vredenburg here after 1528 in order to Keep the citizens in check. It was,
however, destroyed by the citizens in 1577. Adriaen Florisz, the tutor of
Charles V., one of the most pious and learned men of his age, afterwards
(1522) Pope Hadrian VI., was born at Utrecht in 1459. In 1579 the Union
of the seven provinces of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, Over-Yssel,
Briesland, and Groningen, whereby the independence of the Netherlands
was established, was concluded in the Hall of the Academy of Utrecht
under the presidency of Count John of Nassau, brother of William the
Silent. The States General were in the habit of assembling here from
that date down to 1593, when the seat of government was transferred to
The Hague. Utrecht was pillaged by Louis XIV. in 1672. The celebrated
Peace of Utrecht, which terminated the Spanish War of Succession, was
concluded here on 14th April, 1743.
Utrecht is the principal seat of the Dutch Oxp CarHorics (Oud
Bisschoppelyke Clerezie), who form an independent and separate church,
The survivors of the old chapter of the cathedral, who had weathered the
storm of the Protestant Reformation in Holland, were looked upon with
very scant favour in Rome on account of their sympathy with the doc-
trines of Cornelius Jansenius (1585-1638) , Bishop of Ypres, the opponent
of the Jesuits and the author of a work (Augustinus sive doctrina
S. Augustini’), which wags condemned as heretical in 1642. In 1747 Pope
Clemens XI. placed the Netherlandish church under the papal nuncios
at Cologne and Brussels, whereupon (1723) the Utrecht clergy declared
their independence of Rome and elected an archbishop, The Old Catholics
now number about 9000, distributed in 26 parishes, and besides their arch-
bishop at Utrecht have bishops at Haarlem and Deventer. There are
three Old Catholic churches in Utrecht: <S¥. Gertrude (Pl. B, 3), St. Maria
(Pl. B, 3), and Sé. Willebrord, on the Vecht, the continuation of the
Oude Gracht.
The old town is bounded by the Singel, the former moat, now
converted into promenades, and is intersected by two canals, the
Oude and Nieuwe Gracht, which flow so far below the level of the
adjoining houses that the rooms and vaults below the wharfs are
ocoupied as dwellings. |