Utrecht Cathedral

The Utrecht Cathedral (Dom St. Martinus) was the cathedral church of the diocese of Utrecht until 1580 and serves as an Evangelical Reformed church. Since a severe storm in 1674 that destroyed the nave, the church has only consisted of the choir, transept and tower (cathedral gates) , which at 112 meters is the highest church tower in the Netherlands .

history

Layout

Nave with choir before 1665 ( Pieter J. Saenredam )

The choir

Around 630 Franconian missionaries built the first wooden church in the former Roman fort in Utrecht, which may have been consecrated to Saint Martin . Around 695, under Willibrord , who was appointed Archbishop of the Frisians, a stone church was built, making Utrecht the ecclesiastical center. In 857 the church was destroyed by the Normans . After 922, the reconstruction began. After being destroyed again by fire in 1017, a new building was consecrated in 1023. Fire damage again followed in 1131 and 1148, and a new consecration was carried out in 1173. Another fire in 1253 was apparently the trigger for the planning of a large Gothic new building, for which Bishop Heinrich I laid the foundation stone in 1254. Around 1295, the ambulatory was completed, which had been designed based on the Cologne Cathedral . While the construction work in the eastern part of the church was still in full swing, the high west tower was built between 1321 and 1382. Shortly after 1400 the construction of the church came to a standstill for some time. Construction activity was intensified again under the bishops Rudolf von Diepholt and David of Burgundy. The transept with the chapel of Rudolf von Diepholt, the western arm of the cloister and the small and large chapter rooms were built by the builder Jacob van der Borch from around 1440 to 1479. This state around 1460 was recorded in the background of an anonymous triptych in the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, which depicts the crucifixion (see picture). From 1467 the Romanesque nave was demolished and a Gothic nave was built.

The cathedral on a reredos from the period between 1457 and 1467, detail (Centraal Museum, Utrecht)

Historical view before the central nave collapsed

At the beginning of the 16th century the church factory ran out of funds; In 1521, after the church was essentially completed, construction was stopped.

In 1559 Utrecht was raised to an archbishopric. In 1580, the cathedral suffered losses in its furnishings during the iconoclasm and passed to the Protestants. During the occupation by the French King Louis XIV in 1672/73, the Catholics briefly took possession of the cathedral again.

A violent storm led to the collapse of the nave of the church on August 1, 1674. The Utrecht painter Herman Saftleven was commissioned by the Utrecht city government to document the situation after the collapse. The remaining transept was closed with a temporary west wall. The ruins of the central nave were not cleared until 1826; the Domplein (Cathedral Square) was built in its place . The cathedral's decline continued through the 19th century; In 1850 the first renovation campaign was started. Further renovations followed in 1921 and 1979–1988. The tower was thoroughly renovated from 1901 to 1931. A rebuilding of the collapsed central nave is discussed again and again. In 2004 - on the 750th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of the Gothic cathedral - the dimensions of the nave were indicated by a metal construction.

tower

The colossal 112 meter high west tower ("Domtoren") is remarkable. It is one of the largest and most peculiar towers of the 14th century in Europe. The kaleidoscopic shape consists of two square floors of different widths and an octagonal lantern, crowned by a very flat helmet.

Because of the alleged vanity of the company, the building of the tower provoked protests from penitential preacher Geert Groote , which he wrote down in his treatise Contra turrim Traiectensem (“Against the Utrecht Tower”). Nevertheless, the tower of the Utrecht Cathedral later had a formative influence on the construction of various other large church towers in the Netherlands, such as in Amersfoort , Rhenen and Groningen .

A single lane road runs under the tower. Until 2003, only the number 2 buses passed under the tower, coming from Domplatz (Domplein) in the direction of the train station over the Oudegracht.

organ

The great organ

The history of the organs goes back to the year 1342. The large organ was built in the years 1825–1831 by the organ builders Johan and Jonathan Bätz (Utrecht), using pipe material from the 16th and 18th centuries. It was completely restored from 1974 to 1975, with changes made in the meantime being reversed. The instrument has a total of 50 registers (3698 pipes ) on three manuals and pedal .

I Rugpositief C – 3 ³
1.	Prestant	8th'	(B)
2.	Holpijp	8th'	(B)
3.	Quintadena	8th'	(J)
4th	Octaaf	4 ′	(J)
5.	Roerfluit	4 ′	(H)
6th	Quint	3 ′	(J)
7th	Octaaf	2 ′	(J)
8th.	Fluit	2 ′
9.	Cornet V		(B)
10.	Mixture III-VI		(J)
11.	Scherp III-IV		(J)
12.	Trumpet	8th'	(B)
13.	Touzijn	8th'	(n)
	Tremulant		(n)

II Hoofdwerk C – f ³
15th	Prestant	16 ′	(B)
16.	Bourdon	16 ′	(B)
17th	Octaaf	8th'	(B)
18th	Roerfluit	8th'	(B)
19th	Octaaf	4 ′	(B)
20th	Gemshoorn	4 ′	(n)
21st	Quint	3 ′	(B)
22nd	Octaaf	2 ′	(B)
23.	Woudfluit	2 ′	(n)
24.	Sesquialter IV		(n)
25th	Mixture IV-VIII	(B)
26th	Bassoon	16 ′	(B)
27.	Trumpet	8th'	(n)

III Bovenwerk C – f ³
28.	Prestant	8th'	(B)
29	Holpijp	8th'	(B)
30th	Baarpijp	8th'	(B)
31.	Fluit travers	8th'	(B)
32.	Viola di gamba	8th'	(B)
33.	Octaaf	4 ′	(J)
34.	Openfluit	4 ′	(J)
35.	Roerquint	2 ² ⁄ ₃  ′	(n)
36.	Gemshoorn	2 ′	(J)
37.	Flageolet	1'	(J)
38.	Carillon III		(B)
39.	Echo trumpet	8th'	(B)
40.	Vox Humana	8th'	(n)
	Tremulant		(n)

Pedal C – f ¹
41.	Prestant	16 ′	(B)
42.	Open Subbas	16 ′	(B)
43.	Octaafbas	8th'	(B)
44.	Fluitbas	8th'	(B)
45.	Roerquint	5 ¹ ⁄ ₃  ′
46.	Octaaf	4 ′	(J)
47.	Mixture IV
48.	Bazuin	16 ′
49.	Trombones	8th'	(B)
50.	Trumpet	4 ′	(B)
51.	Cinq	2 ′	(B)

Remarks:

(J) = Register in whole or in part from 1571 (Peter Jantz)

(h) = register from before 1871

(B) = Register from 1831 (Jonathan Bätz)

(n) = register from after 1975

Bells

Salvator Bell

In the lower belfry there is a ring of 14 bells . In 1505 Gerhardus de Wou cast a diatonic series of 13 bells to one of the most powerful chimes in Europe. For this purpose, the previous bells were partly melted and partly sold. The seven modern Eijsbouts bells replace the Van Wou bells of the same tone and rib, which were melted down in 1664 to finance the carillon. The fourteenth bell does not belong to the actual main bell and probably hung in the former roof turret above the crossing . Since 1979, all bells have been rung by hand by the approximately 50-strong Utrecht chime guild, both on ecclesiastical and profane occasions. The large Salvator bell, in combination with other bells, is only used on high feast days:

Christmas mass from 11 p.m.,
Easter Sunday to Easter jubilation from 6:40 and starting at 10 am (worship)
Koninginnedag from 9 a.m.,
National Dodenherdenking (national day of remembrance of the dead) from 7:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. soloist,
Ascension Day from 10 a.m. and
Pentecost Sunday from 10 a.m.

The full bell sounds on New Year's Day at midnight at the turn of the year and at the opening of the Oude Muziek Festival at around 12 noon.

Schematic representation of the suspension of the bells in the belfry. All bells hang in the wooden bell cage on straight steel yokes.

No.	Surname	Casting year	Foundry, casting location	Diameter (mm)	Mass (kg)	Percussive ( HT -¹ /₁₆ )
01	Salvator	1505	Gerhardus de Wou	2,270	8,227	f sharp ⁰ ± 0
02	Maria			2,030	5,915	g sharp ⁰ +1
03	Martinus			1,820	4,273	ais ⁰ −2
04th	Michael			1,700	3,343	h ⁰ +1
05	John Baptista			1,530	2,398	cis ¹ −1
06th	Mary Magdalene			1,360	1,655	dis ¹ −3
07th	Agnes Maior	1982	Koninklijke Eijsbouts, Asten	1,270	1,305	e ¹
08th	Agnes Minor			1,220	1,146	ice ¹
09	Pontianus			1,140	0.942	f sharp ¹
10	Campana crucis			1,020	0.662	g sharp ¹
11	Bening nut			0.910	0.467	as ¹
12	Thomas			0.850	0.396	h ¹
13	Adrianus			0.760	0.281	c sharp ²
14th	Jesus, Mary, John	1506	Gerhardus de Wou	0.820	0.392	c ²

In addition to the bell, there is a historically significant carillon made of fifty bells, cast by the Hemony brothers in 1663 . Jacob van Eyck was the cathedral's bell-player in the 17th century.

Dimensions

Choir apse with altar

Total length outside before ship collapse: 119 meters (tower included)
Outside length of the transept: 49 meters
Interior height of the choir vaults: 31.5 meters
Height of the roof ridge: 41.6 meters
Base area of the tower: 19.3 × 19.5 meters
Tower height: 112.32 meters

Web links

Commons : Utrecht Dom church - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Website of the Utrecht Cathedral (English, Dutch)
Website of the Utrecht Cathedral Tower (English, Dutch)
Website of the Utrecht Bell Guild (Dutch)

Individual evidence

↑ More information about the great organ ( Memento from August 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive )

↑ Video recording of the loud bells : Part 1 (09:48 min) , Part 2 (09:57 min) .

↑ Cathedral chimes for 2011; PDF file ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )

^ Sjoerd van Geuns: Contributions to the history of the Utrecht cathedral bell . In: Konrad Bund, Jörg Poettgen (Hgg.): Yearbook for Glockenkunde . Vol. 5/6, Carl Lang'sche Druckerei und Verlag, Cologne 1995, p. 60.

↑ Wim Alings: Kentekens in stad en land . Nefkens, Utrecht 1978, p. 37.

52.090833333333 5.1216666666667Coordinates: 52 ° 5 ′ 27 ″ N , 5 ° 7 ′ 18 ″ E

[1] More information about the great organ ( Memento from August 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive )