The Dom Tower (Cathedral Tower, Dutch: ''Domtoren'') of
Utrecht
Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...
is the
tallest church tower in the
Netherlands
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, established_title = Before independence
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at 112.5 metres (368 feet) in height. It is considered the symbol of Utrecht.
[ The tower was part of St. Martin's Cathedral, also known as the Dom Church, and was built between 1321 and 1382,][ to a design by John of Hainaut.] The cathedral was never fully completed due to lack of money. Since the unfinished nave collapsed in 1674, the Dom tower has been a freestanding tower. The tower stands at the spot where the city of Utrecht originated almost 2,000 years ago.[
]
Design and construction
The Dom Tower was one of the largest towers constructed in Europe during the fourteenth century, and it was planned to show the power of the church in Utrecht. Its construction led preacher Geert Groote
Gerard Groote (October 1340 – 20 August 1384), otherwise ''Gerrit'' or ''Gerhard Groet'', in Latin ''Gerardus Magnus'', was a Dutch Catholic deacon, who was a popular preacher and the founder of the Brethren of the Common Life. He was a key fi ...
to protest against the vanity of such an immense project, suggesting it was too tall, too expensive and all but aesthetic.
The tower consists of two square blocks, topped by a much lighter lantern. One of the most striking features is the absence of visible buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral ( ...
es. Its particular shape and original architecture had a large influence on many other towers in the Netherlands, including the Martinitoren
The ''Martinitoren'' (; Martini or St. Martin's Tower) is the tallest church steeple in the city of Groningen, Netherlands, and the bell tower of the Martinikerk.
The tower is located at the north-eastern corner of the ''Grote Markt'' (Main Ma ...
in Groningen. Upon completion in 1382 the tower stood 109 metres tall. However the height was increased during the restorations in 1910, to its present height of 112.5 metres.
The Dom tower was a multifunctional building. In addition to being a belfry, it contained a private chapel of the Bishop of Utrecht on the first floor. It also served as a watchtower; the tower guard was housed on the second floor of the lower square block.
Carillonneurs of the Dom Tower of Utrecht
The Dom tower has a carillon in its building, there were many operators of the Carrillon spanning from the 16th century to now.
Here is a list of all the carillonneur
A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmonio ...
s that played in the Dom tower:
Bells
The Dom Tower has an exceptional peal of fourteen ringing bells, weighing 32 tonnes in total. In 1505 Geert van Wou, then the most famous bell-founder of the Netherlands, made a harmonious peal of thirteen bells. The seven smallest bells, sold in 1664 to finance the new carillon, were replaced in 1982 with new bells by Eijsbouts
Royal Eijsbouts ( nl, Koninklijke Eijsbouts) is a bell foundry located in Asten, Netherlands.
The workshop was founded in 1872 by Bonaventura Eijsbouts as a "factory for tower clocks." In 1893 Eijsbouts was joined by his 15-year-old son, Johan ...
. The largest bell, the ''Salvator'', has a weight of 8,200 kg and a diameter of 227 cm. Together with the fourteenth bell, they form the largest existing homogeneous group of medieval bells. The cathedral's bells are still rung by hand by members of the Utrecht Bellringers Guild.
In 1625, Jacob van Eyck became carillon player of the Dom Tower. In 1664, a new carillon was installed by Juriaan Sprakel of Zutphen
Zutphen () is a city and municipality located in the province of Gelderland, Netherlands. It lies some 30 km northeast of Arnhem, on the eastern bank of the river Ijssel at the point where it is joined by the Berkel. First mentioned in th ...
, with a mechanism consisting of 35 chimes,[ made by the brothers ]Pieter and François Hemony
Pieter Hemony (born Pierre Hemony; 161920 February 1680) and his brother François Hemony (24 May 1667) were the greatest bellfounders in the history of the Low Countries. They developed the carillon, in collaboration with Jacob van Eyck, ...
.[ In 1972 the carillon was restored and extended to 50 bells. The current player is Małgosia Fiebig
]
Storm damage
The cathedral's nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
was never completely finished, and on the night of August 1, 1674, a tornado
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...
destroyed this part of the cathedral, but the tower was undamaged.
The remaining section of the church and the tower were never reconnected, and the Domplein Square now separates the two structures. In the summer of 2004, however, a mock nave was constructed out of scaffolding to commemorate the missing link. The floorplan of the missing section is shown by the multicoloured paving of the square.
In 1836 the top floor of the tower was heavily damaged in a storm and demolition of the tower was seriously considered. However, it was subsequently restored, a process which took five years.
Tourism and weddings
The tower has its own visitor centre, RonDom (which refers to both the Dutch word ''rond'' or ''rondom'', meaning around or surrounding and the name of the church - emphasised by the capital D), which is located in the square. As well as stocking a range of souvenirs, they organise a number of activities centred on the tower, including regular guided tours which allow people to climb the 465 steps to the top of the Dom Tower.[ On a clear day it is possible to see both Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The booking office for guided tours is located in the square at the foot of the tower.
It is also possible to get married in the tower.][
]
Radio DOM (1999)
Radio DOM was an automatic radio-station located on the Dom tower in Utrecht, which from 3 June 1999 until 3 October 1999 broadcast an audio 'soundscape' based on the sounds of the city of Utrecht. Radio DOM got its inputs from six computer-controlled surveillance microphones installed at a height of 80 metres on the Dom tower, which constantly scanned the central area of the city. The sound signals picked up by these microphones were algorithmically combined into a continuously varying soundscape which was broadcast 24 hours a day by an FM radio transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...
installed on the Dom tower.
Broadcast on 102.3 MHz FM, Radio DOM was part of the exhibition Panorama 2000, organised by the Centraal Museum
The Centraal Museum is the main museum in Utrecht, Netherlands, founded in 1838. The museum has a wide-ranging collection, mainly of works produced locally. The collection of the paintings by the Northern Mannerist Joachim Wtewael is by a lon ...
in Utrecht.[
]
Local planning restrictions
Until recently, the unwritten rule in evaluating planning applications in the city of Utrecht was that no building could be built that exceeded the Dom Tower in height. This restriction seems to have been dispensed for plans in the developing suburban area in the west of Utrecht (Leidsche Rijn
Leidsche Rijn (, Utrecht dialect: ) is a neighbourhood in the west of Utrecht in the central Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
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) and a skyscraper of 262 metres in height has been proposed, challenging this long-standing tradition. The plans for this tower, however, were cancelled in 2010 due to the economic crisis
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with th ...
.
Replica
A replica of the Dom Tower has been constructed in the Dutch themed amusement park; Huis Ten Bosch (theme park) at Sasebo
is a core city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. It is also the second largest city in Nagasaki Prefecture, after its capital, Nagasaki. On 1 June 2019, the city had an estimated population of 247,739 and a population density of 581 persons p ...
, Nagasaki, Japan
Google Street View
Panoramas
See also
* List of carillons
Carillons, musical instruments of bells in the percussion family, are found on every inhabited continent. The Netherlands, Belgium, and the United States contain more than two thirds of the world's total, and over 90 percent can be found in e ...
References
External links
Utrechts Klokkenluiders Gilde
Utrechtse Klokkenspel Vereniging
How the tower was built
(Dutch, but with useful illustrations)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dom Tower Of Utrecht
Bell towers in the Netherlands
Carillons
Towers in Utrecht (province)
Tourist attractions in Utrecht (province)
Rijksmonuments in Utrecht (city)
History of Utrecht (city)
nl:Dom van Utrecht