Utrecht

Utrecht grew on the old bed of the Rhine inside a Roman fort called Traiectum, and became the seat of the bishops who ruled the Nedersticht and the Oversticht as princes of the Empire. Henry V gave it town rights on 2 June 1122. The Rhine's old channel turned into canals lined with wharves and storage cellars below the street, a layout that let goods pass from ships to warehouses. Around the Dom, four collegiate churches and the parish churches of Saint James, Saint Nicholas and Saint Gertrude made it the religious capital of the Low Countries.

The Gothic cathedral of Saint Martin, begun in 1254, was the project of the age. Its choir and transept were finished from 1320 and the great Dom Tower followed; work on the nave started in 1420, but falling funds left it unfinished. The prince-bishops were locked in near-constant conflict with the counts of Holland and the dukes of Guelders, who took the Veluwe, while the citizens struggled against the bishops over their own liberties.

In 1528 the last bishop-prince gave his worldly power to Charles V, and in 1559 Utrecht became an archbishopric. To hold down the restless townspeople the emperor built the castle of Vredenburg, which the citizens pulled down in an uprising early in the Dutch Revolt. On 23 January 1579 the northern provinces signed the Union of Utrecht here, the beginning of the Dutch Republic. In 1580 the new Protestant state abolished the bishoprics, and the stadtholders brought the city under tighter control from Holland. Peace congresses ended the War of the Spanish Succession here in 1713.