A remarkable two decades-long project to restore the medieval Dutch city has made it the envy of the Netherlands.
″Ten times a day I mention you,” wrote Anna Maria van Schurman in longing from her exile, in later life, for taking on the religious establishment. The love interest of the polymath and painter was not a person but a place – the Dutch city of Utrecht. In the 17th century, Van Schurman’s brilliance led to her being the first woman allowed to study at university, albeit from behind a curtain so as not to distract the men.
And Utrecht is wide awake once more, one of the fastest-growing cities in the Netherlands. Progressive and inventive, it is undoing planning mistakes of the post-war period in a spectacular fashion and, at the same time, ensuring that its historic heart avoids the ‘death by tourism’ fate of now tawdry central Amsterdam. The emphasis in Utrecht is on boutique hotels and culture, not big chains and stag weekends.
Remarkably, in a visionary two-decade project, the 1970 motorway has been removed and the Catharijnesingel moat restored. It was completed during the COVID-19 lockdowns so went largely unsung, but has just won a major European urban design award. The shopping mall had to stay, but it has been given a new wrapping alongside one of those wonderful Dutch mega-railway stations and a new concert hall.
Utrecht’s Stationsfietsenstalling is the largest bike park in the world, accommodating 12,000 bicyles.
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