Amsterdam is overrated. At least I, a city-of-Utrecht-lover, thinks so. Therefore I present 5 sights/museums that should convince you to visit this lovely city of mine.
Domtoren
It’s the trademark of Utrecht: de Domtoren (the Dom tower). You can find this beautiful church in the center of Utrecht, on a square called the Domplein. It is 112,32 meters and therefore Holland’s highest church.
This Gothic church was build in 1254 and made to be the Cathedral of the diocese of Utrecht. It took until 1580 before the church became protestant. The Domtoren used to have a connection to the church on the opposite side of the street, but after a tornado in 1674, this part got destructed and was never restored.
Centraal Museum of Utrecht
Utrecht’s Centraal Museum (Central museum) is located in the center of Utrecht. The biggest part of the museum was a former convent. Other parts of the museum used to be psychiatric hospital, a military horse barn and an orphanage. Don’t worry, the place isn’t haunted (as far as I know).
This museum shows artwork from artist from Utrecht, such as Dick Bruna and several objects from Rietveld (see Rietveld Schröderhuis). Besides the fixed collection that shows the history of Utrecht, the museum always shows interesting temporary exhibitions.
Rietveld Schröderhuis
Placed on UNESCO’s list of important heritages, the Rietveld Schröderhuis cannot be missed when you visit Utrecht. This house was build in 1924 by Gerrit Rietveld for Truus Schröder. This is the only building that was ever made according to the architectural principles of De Stijl (the style, a Dutch art movement). The typical colors that are used are red, blue and yellow, in a combination with white, grey and black.
After Truus Schröder died in 1985, the Central Museum became the lucky owner. In 2000 UNESCO putted this extraordinary house on its list of world heritages. Rietvelds casa is digitally accessible in the Central Museum, but can also be visited for real. This requires an appointment.
Dutch Railway Museum
If you are fascinated by our railway history, het Spoorwegmuseum (the Dutch Railway Museum) is obviously interesting to visit. It is located in the Maliebaanstation, which was build in 1847. In 1954 it became the home for the museum.
The museum started off with just a couple of old objects, but grew along the years. Several enlargements took place, but in 1988-1989 the building got rebuild immensely. This happened again in 2002. The museum has separated halls, such as the station hall with an eating hall, waiting room for the third class and a waiting room for the second and first class.
The back part shows four different ‘worlds’ with one, the big discovery, two, dream travels, three, monsters of steal and four, the working place. The museum is made to attract the old and the young, the stupid and the smart and the dark and the white.
Het Speelklok Museum
Before the summer of 2010 this museum was called Het Van Speelklok tot Pierment Museum (The National Museum from Musical Clock to Street Organ). A mouthful, indeed, so now we can just call it the Musical Clock Museum. This museum contains a collection of old automatic playing musical instruments. Most of them are still working. You can find music boxes, automatic playing piano’s and street organs.
It exists since 1956 and can be found in the Buurkerk, near the Domtoren. The museum attracts around 135.000 visitors annually.
