The Cathedrals and Churches of the Rhine Part 31

The environs of the city are exceedingly picturesque. The Rhine again divides into two branches, the Oud Rijn continuing to the North Sea, through Leyden, and the other branch, known thenceforth as the Vecht, flowing into the Zuyder Zee.

Utrecht is one of the most ancient cities of the Netherlands, having been founded under Nero by a Roman Senator named Antony, hence it is frequently referred to by historians as Antonia Civitas.

Its name in time evolved itself into _Trajectum inferius_ or _vetus_, and in the Latin nomenclature of the early middle ages, it became _Ultrajectum_, or _Trajectum Ultricensium_. Under the Franks it was called Wiltrecht, which was but a short step to the name it now bears.

King Dagobert here founded the first church in Friesland, with St.

Willibrod as bishop, and St. Boniface, before he was called to Rome, here preached evangelization.

The city was ruined and devastated in the seventh century, but its rebuilding was begun in 718 by Clothaire IV. Toward 934 it was surrounded by protecting walls by Bishop Baldric of Cleves. Utrecht was frequently made the residence of the emperors, and Charles V. there built the chateau of Vreeburg, a species of fortress-chateau that was demolished by the burghers of the city at the beginning of the war of independence, 1577.

Adrien Florizoon, the preceptor of Charles V., who, at the death of Leo X., occupied the pontifical throne in 1522-23 as Adrien VI., was born at Utrecht. His house (Paushuizen) on the banks of the ca.n.a.l Nieuwe Gracht, now a government building, contains many pictures relative to his life and times.

For a long time the city was only a bishop's seat, but in 1559 it was made an archbishopric.

When, in 630, Dagobert, King of Austrasia, founded a chapel here, the religious foundation of the city began, and as early as in 696 it became the seat of a bishop. In the ninth century the Normans sacked the town, but thenceforth the bishops, who were then suffragans of Liege, acquired a strength and power which a.s.sured the city freedom from molestation for a long time.

In the sixteenth century political and religious dissension combined to promote a state of unrest which was most acute. In 1577 the party which had allied itself with the Prince of Orange introduced religious reform, and in 1579 the seven provinces of Holland formed their compact of federation, and the States General held their sittings here.

The _Domkerk_, or cathedral, originally dedicated to St. Martin, is to-day a Protestant church. It was an outgrowth of the primitive church founded in 630 by Dagobert I., and of an abbey established by St.

Willibrod.

The cathedral of St. Martin was rebuilt, after a fire in 1024, by Bishop Adebolde, "in the presence of the Emperor Henry II. and many other great personages," as the old chroniclers have it. In 1257 it was nearly entirely rebuilt by the bishop then holding the see, Henri of Vianden, but a great storm crushed in its nave in 1674, since which time the faulty juncture of the various parts has been sadly apparent.

After the destruction of the nave, the choir and the transepts formed practically the entire building, with the tower existing merely as a dismembered and orphaned feature.

The tower was commenced in 1331 and completed in 1382. It rises from a magnificently vaulted base. The lower portion is rectangular, but the octagon which forms the upper stages and "pierced to the light of day,"

as the French have it, follows the best accepted style of its era. In its way it is, although quite different, the rival of St. Ouen's "Crown of Normandy" at Rouen.

There are 453 steps to be mounted if one cares to ascend to the platform, 103 metres from the ground. One gets the usual bird's-eye view, with this difference, that the glance of the eye seems to reach out into an interminable distance, by reason of the general flatness of the country. One sees, at any rate, quite all of the provinces of South Holland, with the Zuyder Zee to the north, and a part of Guelderland and North Brabant. The tower possesses also a fine set of chimes of forty-two bells which is reminiscent of Belgium; but, unlike those in the famous old belfry at Bruges, the chimes on the _Domkerk_ at Utrecht do not ring out popular marches or the airs of popular songs.

The interior is so crowded with benches, similar to what English churchgoing people know as pews, that its original aspect is somewhat changed. Eighteen great pillars hold aloft the vaulting of the choir and transepts.

[Ill.u.s.tration: UTRECHT _and Its_ CATHEDRAL]

A notable tomb in black and white marble is that of Admiral van Gent (1676), and another is that of Bishop Georges d'Egmont (1549). In the vault beneath the edifice were buried the viscera of Conrad II. and Henry V., who died at Utrecht, and whose remains, with this exception, were transported to Speyer.

A fine Gothic cloister connects the cathedral with the university. This has, in recent years, undergone restoration of a most practical and devoted kind. It is a marvel of modern architectural work.

St. Peter's is another ancient Roman Catholic church now devoted to Protestant uses.

St. John's also comes under this category. It is a fine example of a small Gothic church of the variety which was best known only in Holland and Belgium; much more severe than the French species, but interesting withal.

Within the walls of this last are two tombs quite worthy of attention and remark. The one against the western wall is that of a cardinal who died in the fifteenth century, and the other is that of Balthazar Frederick of Stoech. The latter, though dating only from the eighteenth century, is charmingly sculptured, and has two superb figures of weeping children done in marble.

The Roman Catholic church of St. Catherine is a Gothic edifice of the third ogival period, and was restored in 1880 at the expense of a devout Catholic of the city, named Van den Brink.

The walls are decorated in a polychromatic scheme, which is not beautiful, though undeniably striking. The jube, by Mengelberg of Utrecht, is distinctly good.

Utrecht possesses in the _Aartsbisschoppelyk Museum_ an establishment unique among the museums of the world. Particularly it shows all branches of religious art, and is of great importance to all who study the art and architecture of the Netherlands.

Of the secular establishments one remarks the university which adjoins the cathedral. It dates from 1636, and has to-day five faculties.

In the palace, constructed for Louis Bonaparte during the Napoleonic overflow, is a magnificent library of 110,000 volumes and 1,500 MSS.

The ancient academy, the arch-episcopal palace, the Palais de Justice, the Stadt Huis, the Paushuizen (Prefecture), the mint, with a rich numismatic collection, and the a.s.sociation of Arts and Sciences complete the list of the city's notable monuments.

_Leyden_

With Leyden the Rhine may be said to take its leave of ancient civilization, though it only joins the briny waters of the North Sea at Katwyck, a dozen kilometres distant, after having formed a natural frontier for nearly eleven hundred kilometres, from its Alpine cradle in the canton of Grisons.

Anciently Leyden was the Lugdunum Batavorum of the Romans, and, according to the old-time historians, was the most ancient city of Holland. Later its name became Leithen, from which its present nomenclature is evolved.

Its great importance came with the thirteenth century and endured until the Spanish wars.

The city was besieged by the Spaniards in 1574, and delivered therefrom by the Prince of Orange in the year following.

To-day the plan of Leyden forms a regular pentagon, with long streets and boulevards, all characteristically Dutch, with old-time and modern houses alike built with queer gabled roofs, giving quite a mediaeval aspect to an otherwise lively and up-to-date little city.

The city is traversed from east to west by the Oud Rijn, which throws out many arms and branches and gives to the place a most Venetian appearance.

One distinctive feature of the topographical aspect of Leyden, and one which is universal in most of the cities of Holland, are the ca.n.a.ls which cross and recross the princ.i.p.al streets. All is _plus propres_, as the French have it, and the tree-bordered, cobblestoned quays are not the least of the town's attractions for the stranger.

Unquestionably the chief architectural treasure of Leyden is the Stadt Huis. It is of the style which may best be called Dutch, and is a reconstruction of 1597.

In front of the Stadt Huis are a pair of gaudily coloured stone lions, which have looked down for a matter of three hundred years on the Pilgrim Fathers, some of whom had gathered and settled here previous to going to the New World, on Oliver Goldsmith, on Boswell, on Evelyn, and on many other Englishmen who attended the famous university here.

One learns that these lions were once properly coloured beasts,--at least of the conventional tone of stone sculptured animals, and that they were only recently painted a gaudy vermilion, which apparently is not a very durable colour, as in these days they seem to shed and don their coats with surprising frequency.

The chief ecclesiastical monuments of Leyden are the church of St.

Peter, of the thirteenth to sixteenth century, a vast Latin cross of not very good Gothic; and St. Pancras, of the thirteenth century, built, curiously enough, on the ground-plan of a St. Andrew's cross.

St. Peter's was built in 1221, but in 1512 its great tower fell and was replaced by the present one, which rises high above the rest of the fabric.

In truth, there is not much of interest to be derived from a contemplation of the church except the memory of the great names of those interred therein, which form a veritable category of those who became famous in matters ecclesiastic, artistic, and scientific, in Holland's roll of fame.

Near St. Peter's is a thirteenth-century edifice now used as a prison.

In olden times it served as the residence of the Counts of Holland, the name "Gravenstein" on the ancient structure signifying "the house of the count."

The church of St. Pancras is an ogival edifice built in 1280. It has no remarkably artistic attributes, and its chief interest consists in the fact that it contains the tomb of Van der Werf, the courageous burgomaster, who, in 1574, so heroically defended the city. He was born at Leyden in 1529 and died in 1604.

Leyden may be called the learned city of Holland. In recognition of having withstood a siege by the Spaniards of 131 days, the city was given the choice between exemption from taxation or the foundation of a university, and chose the latter.

The city is the birthplace of many men famous in Dutch art, among them Lucas de Leyde, Rembrandt, Gerard Dow, G. Metsu, J. van Goyen.

Here also was born the celebrated anabaptist known as John of Leyden.