Destination
the Eternal Sentinel
I will gladly help you discover charming Utrecht — almost as eternal as Rome. The bell tower of the Dom already rose here and busy trading life was in full swing at a time when Amsterdam was only just being born. A city ruled for long centuries by bishops, loved by emperors, and the birthplace of its unique two-level canals — the pride and the highlight of the town. You will learn who the only Dutch Pope in history was, what mistake the bishops of Utrecht made, and what Utrecht has in common with a scandalous medieval Parisian. Good old Utrecht will enchant you from the very first step, with its welcoming streets that have heard and seen so much over the last couple of thousand years :)
The tour lasts 3 hours and covers the historic centre of the city.
The tallest church tower in the Netherlands — 112 metres. It took almost a century to build and is still the tallest: in a country where everything is flat, that is visible from far away. It stands apart from the cathedral, and therein lies the whole story.
There is nothing like it in any other Dutch city. The canal runs below street level, and along the water stretches a second tier of working wharves with cellars right under the houses. Goods went straight from the barge into the merchant's cellar. Today those cellars hold cafés.
In 1674 a tornado passed over Utrecht and brought down the nave. The rubble lay untouched for almost two hundred years. That is why the tower now stands separately, with a square between them.
The only Pope in history from the Netherlands was born right here, into an ordinary Utrecht family. He held the throne for barely a year, tried to reform the curia — and made so many enemies that after his death Romans decorated the door of his physician with flowers.
A bridge beside the town hall — and a square at the same time. One of those Utrecht paradoxes where you cannot immediately tell whether you are standing on a bridge or on a street.
A building almost seven hundred years old: first a commandery of the Knights Hospitaller, then a residence, and now a hotel. Named after Emperor Charles V, who stayed here. Behind its walls hides a quiet garden most tourists never suspect.
