Utrecht

Utrecht (Oude trecht, 'old ford;' Lat. Trajectum ad Rhenum), the capital of a province of the Netherlands, on the 'Old' Rhine (q.v.), 23 miles SSE. of Amsterdam and 38 ENE. of Rotterdam. The walls were levelled in 1830, and formed into shady promenades, the present fortifications consisting of strong forts. St Martin's Cathedral, founded by St Willibrord about 720, and rebuilt in 1251-67, had its nave destroyed by a hurricane in 1674, so that the choir and the tower (321 feet high) now stand separate. The famous university, founded in 1634, numbers nearly 700 students, and has a library of 160,000 volumes. Other edifices are the 14th-century Roman Catholic cathedral, the town-hall (1830), the 'Pope's house' (built by Adrian VI., who was born here in 1459), the palace (in 1807) of Louis Bonaparte, &c. Utrecht since 1723 has been the headquarters of the Janseists (see Vol. VI. p. 280). The manufactures include tobacco and cigars, woollen fabrics and carpets, salt, furniture, chemicals, machinery, &c. Pop. of the town (1869) 59,299; (1890) 86,116; and of the province (1890) 224,001, its area being 530 sq. m. Utrecht is one of the oldest cities of the Netherlands, and probably was founded by the Romans. Here the famed union of the northern provinces for the defence of political and religious freedom was formed, January 23, 1579 (see Vol. V. p. 742); and Utrecht is famous for the nine distinct treaties there concluded on April 11, 1713, which brought to a close the war of the Spanish succession (see Vol. IX. p. 779). By the treaty between France and Britain, the former ceded St Kitts, Hudson Bay, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland (the liberty of fishing for cod being reserved), recognised formally the Hanoverian succession, engaged that the crowns of France and Spain should never be united, and that no part of the Spanish Netherlands should ever be ceded or transferred to France; whilst Spain renounced her Italian possessions in favour of Austria, and gave up Gibraltar and Minorca to Britain.