Utrecht Pope Adrianus VI (3)

Before the building became Paushuize (the Pope’s House), it was a big building, for the first time mentioned in a document, dated 4 October 1360, in which it was passed over to the immunity of the Saint Pieter (N).

An immunity is a well traced area in which canons (kanunniken) live hidden from the view of the local authorities.

From one side it bordered to the immunity of the Dom and on the other part it bordered to the still existing Saint Pieter’s ditch, now the Kromme Nieuwe Gracht.

It knew several owners till 25 April 1517, when the building was sold to Adriaan Florensz Boeijens, the later Dutch Pope. He gave orders to rebuild the building, but has never seen it after that, by his more or less sudden death in Rome (15-09-1523).

Now it is the official building of the government of the Province Utrecht.

In the wall you can see a sculpture of Adrian VI.

Utrecht Pope Adrianus VI (2)

This picture has been taken in the Paushuize (Pope's House) in UTRECHT

POPE ADRIAN VI.(March 2, 1459 - September 14, 1523),
Was born at the Brandt alley (now –Brandtstreet) in Utrecht.

Adrian visited here a Latin school. In this time his father and his two elder brothers died.

With his uncle he had to take care of this mother.

When he was 19 years old he left for the University of Louvain (Leuven- Belgium). It was the start of a political and religion career.

More about the life of Adrian you can read here (N) or here (E).

When Adrian was elected as a Pope, the Utrecht population was enthusiastic but Adrian wasn’t. He first didn’t believe that he, son of a carpenter, would be a pope!

He is only convinced after receiving the documents. But he didn’t like the idea, especially not, since he was 62 years old and the atmosphere at the Vatican was below zero. The cardinals quarrelled and were more interested in boozing (zuipen), stuffing (vreten) themselves and exploiting whores.
They were not amused when they saw how modest and serious Adrian VI was.

After 12 months and two weeks Adrian died, probably because of the plague ( de pest) that ruled in Rome