Domkerk (Dom Church), Utrecht

Domkerk (Dom Church), Utrecht (must see)

Domkerk, as it presently stands, was begun in 1254. It was initially a cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Utrecht and dedicated to St. Martin, but it has been Protestant since the Reformation in 1580.

This wasn't the first church built here, though. Dom Church has been built on centuries of history. Dom Square was the site of a Roman castellum that guarded a crossing of the river Rhine. The castellum likely included a small stone temple.

During the Middle Ages, the Utrecht area was the cradle of Christianity in the Northern Netherlands. Frankish missionaries built a wood church here in 630, long after the Romans had left.

In 695, Willibrord, an Anglo-Saxon monk, was charged with building a stone church dedicated to St. Martin. At this time, there was also a second church dedicated to St. Salvator. Unfortunately, Normans destroyed the churches here in 857 and the local bishops fled.

Bishop Adalbold built a Romanesque-style church on this site, consecrated in 1023. Sadly, Adalbold's church was mostly destroyed in a nine-day fire in 1253 that affected much of Utrecht.

The Gothic St. Martins Cathedral was started in 1254. However, progress on the cathedral was slow as money for the project was scarce. It wasn't until Jan van Nassau put together a series of measures to secure financing that construction started. That was in 1288.

The 14th and 15th centuries saw several additions and expansions to the church. This included the bell tower, transept, and nave. Still, even after all these years, the money dried up for the projects, and work was done in starts and stops. At this time, the nave connected the church to the tower in one grand cathedral.

A severe storm on August 1, 1674, destroyed the church's nave. The result was the separation of the church and the tower, which has remained to this day. The remains of that original nave stood until 1826.

Over the years, there have been several attempts to rebuild the nave, or at least mark its existence. In 2004 a temporary structure was created using scaffolding.

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Domkerk (Dom Church) on Map

Sight Name: Domkerk (Dom Church)
Sight Location: Utrecht, Netherlands (See walking tours in Utrecht)
Sight Type: Religious
Guide(s) Containing This Sight:

Walking Tours in Utrecht, Netherlands

Create Your Own Walk in Utrecht

Create Your Own Walk in Utrecht

Creating your own self-guided walk in Utrecht is easy and fun. Choose the city attractions that you want to see and a walk route map will be created just for you. You can even set your hotel as the start point of the walk.
Utrecht's Historical Buildings Walking Tour

Utrecht's Historical Buildings Walking Tour

Originally founded by the Romans, and once the most important city in the Netherlands, Utrecht boasts a generous share of historically significant structures. The collection of its architectural masterpieces, one of the richest in the country, dates back to the early Middle Ages.

The amazingly well-preserved pieces of historic architecture in Utrecht showcase the trends and movements throughout...  view more

Tour Duration: 2 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 3.8 Km or 2.4 Miles
Utrecht Introduction Walking Tour

Utrecht Introduction Walking Tour

The earliest settlers to the area now called Utrecht likely arrived millennia ago during the Stone Age. While there are also signs of inhabitation during the Bronze Age, scholars today credit the Romans with building what became the town.

They set up a castellum around the year 50 AD, a fort right at a crossing point on the river Rhine. The fortress marked Rome's northernmost point in...  view more

Tour Duration: 1 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 1.6 Km or 1 Miles