Rainbow lighting in the Dom Church in Utrecht

by Jeroen de Jongh Photography

The Dom of Utrecht (Historic St. Martin's Cathedral) is a striking Gothic church in the center of the Dutch city of Utrecht. The church was built from 1254 as a continuation of the Romanesque cathedral of the Roman Catholic diocese of Utrecht and was dedicated to St. Martin. Since 1580, the church has been Protestant. The 112.32-meter Dom Tower is the tallest church tower in the Netherlands and the tallest building in Utrecht.

The Dom was the only cathedral in the Northern Netherlands, an area roughly coinciding with the present-day Netherlands, until the church was redesignated in 1559. Until the inauguration of St. Bavo Cathedral in Haarlem in 1898, the Dom was the only church built as a cathedral in the Netherlands.

Of the church building, the choir, transept and tower remain today. The nave, whose construction was never completed, collapsed in 1674 due to natural disasters. As a result, the Cathedral Tower and the remaining part of the Cathedral Church became separate. The Dom complex also includes a cloister and the large chapter house (now an auditorium of Utrecht University) where the Union of Utrecht was signed in 1579. The small chapter house of the Cathedral complex, which was built against the west side of the cloister, was demolished in the nineteenth century.

The Utrecht Cathedral, despite its missing nave and the severe destruction caused by the transition to Protestantism around 1578-1580, is one of the most important Gothic monuments in the Netherlands. It was also one of the earliest examples of Gothic architecture in the Netherlands and is the only building here in the country that is close in style to classical French Gothic. The present Cathedral was preceded by a cathedral in the Romanesque style.