Utrecht The Spine (de Spinde)

You can hardly see the small house with the red roof in front of the hughe Dom Tower.



It is called the Spinde and is the only 15th century remain of the Bishop Palace till 1803.

The Spinde was the warehouse for the Bishop Palace and stored grain and other food.

Later the building was rebuilt to a private house.

Much later the house served as a tower watchman's hut.

Utrecht The Orphanage Springweg

The portal guards over one of the sites
of the orphanage founded by
Evert Zoudenbalch in 1497

One of the most prominent families was the Zoudenbalch family (also known as Soudenbalch) throughout the Middle Ages to the age of the Dutch Revolt.

They occupied all posts of importance in the city government, possessed various lordships in the vicinity and played a leading role in the history of the Sticht.

Evert Zoudenbalch's most enduring legacy and greatest fame is due to an act of charity.

In the late fifteenth century he decided to establish the first orphanage in the northern Netherlands and left it an immense capital to finance its acts of charity.

The orphanage was an exceptional piece of gothic architecture and was dedicated to the paragon of noble charity, St. Elisabeth of Hungary, Landgravine of Thuringia.

The gothic complex was however damaged beyond repair during the siege of Vredenburg (1567.1568) in the course of the Dutch Revolt and the buildings were demolished.

The orphanage was then re-located to another location between the Springstraat and the Oudegracht in 1582

Utrecht The Utrecht Ship

In the base- ment of the Centraal Museum a long wreck is exposed, known as the Utrecht Ship.

At December 5, 1930 it was found during excavation work and was immediately a great sensation. The newspapers were full of them.

The director of the museum in that time, Dr. WC Schuylenburg, immediately saw the great scientific importance of the find in the wreck and decided to save it.

That was easier said than done, since the preservation of wooden objects is extremely difficult.

Till the end of the 50's the theory was that the ship came from the Roman period.

After many studies the years 1000-1025 seemed to be more likely.

The wreck smells very strong, but after the renovation of the Central Museum, the ship is exposed behind glass.

Here more about this ship (in Dutch but to translate with Goodle)

Utrecht Payenborch

In the Middle Ages Utrecht already new big houses decorated with turrets and battlements.

These houses were called 'town castles'.

One of these houses is Payenborgh, with next to it Small Payenborgh at Oude Gracht 320.

Because of costs of energy and cleaning and so on, the owners of these houses had big meetings and parties in the big house, but mostly lived their daily life in the small building.

Along the Oude Gracht you see more of these double houses.

The name is from the family Paye, who lived here from the middle of the 14th century till the end of the 15th century.

The frame of the door is from the 18th century. In 1830 the windows were replaced and the front plastered.

In 1909 the university bought the building to start an education for dental surgery.

20 Years later the education was moved to the Jutfaseweg.

On the pictures the front of the building and an old dentist chair

Utrecht Saint Nicholas 5 December

This memorial stone you can find above the door of
Oudegracht 330.

I couldn't find the back ground information.

It shows Saint Nicholas who flies on a kind of cloud to save the sailors on the vessel.

It is not clear why, according to Dutch tradition, St. Nicholas comes from Spain.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that St. Nicholas was the patron of the seafares.

In the 17th century, Holland was known for its seafare (trade and colonies).

Maybe this tradition began by the contact with Spanish sailors.

This may also explain why Saint Nicholas is helped by Black Pete's
(the Moors dominated Spain for several hundreds of years)

Another, more popular, statement is that the Pete’s are black since they often enter chimneys and there is no time to wash their selves :).

Utrecht Nederlands Film Festival (Dutch Movie Festival)

Every year the Dutch Film Festival is held in Utrecht.

The opening and closing is mostly is the Stadschouwburg but the organization is hosted in the old building of De Winkel van Sinkel.

The building started after a long preparation in 1837 based on the design of architect Pieter Adams (1778-1846).

The most remarkable part of the design is the four big women statues in Greek robes.

Saint Martin was born in Sabaria in 316, now called Hungary.

His parents called him after the Roman God Mars.

His father was a senior officer in the service of the Roman army.

As a 10 years old boy, Martin got interested in the Christian Faith.

While Martin was still a soldier at Amiens later, he experienced the vision that became the most-repeated story about his life.

He was at the gates of the city of Amiens with his soldiers when he met a scantily dressed beggar.

He impulsively cut his own military cloak in half and shared it with the beggar.

That night he dreamed of Jesus wearing the half-cloak Martin had given away.

He heard Jesus say to the angels: "Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is not baptised; he has clad me.

On the picture St.Martin cuts off a part of his cloak by which he was the first "mantelzorger":).