Utrecht Sights by Theme
Rather than sending you from one street to the next, this page groups Utrecht’s sights by theme: medieval Utrecht, design, water, art and history, and remembrance. Pick the themes that interest you and combine them. Prices are in euros, and card payment is standard.
Medieval Utrecht
The Dom Tower is Utrecht’s signature, 112.5 m high and completed in 1382. Its ascent is by guided tour only, up 465 stone steps, and tickets cost 13.50 euros for adults and 8.50 for children aged 4 to 12, students and over-65s. The restoration of the tower ended on 9 November 2024 and the scaffolding is gone. See domtoren.nl .
The tower stands alone because the nave of St. Martin’s Cathedral fell in the storm of 1 August 1674 and was never rebuilt. What remains of the church, the Domkerk, is across the square. It has been Protestant since 1580, and the city’s Roman Catholic cathedral is the Sint-Catharinakathedraal on Lange Nieuwstraat. Hours are on domkerk.nl . The Pandhof cloister garden beside it dates from the 14th century.
Design
The Rietveld Schröder House, completed in 1924, is a UNESCO World Heritage site from 2000. Booking an online slot is required for everyone, and adult tickets cost 19 euros. The Centraal Museum adds the Red and Blue Chair and the largest collection of Rietveld design in the world.
Water
The Oudegracht runs about 2 km through the centre and has two levels, the street above and a wharf beside the water, both lined with places to eat. The Nieuwegracht is the quieter canal, planted with lime trees and framed by 17th-century mansions. Look for Paushuize on Kromme Nieuwegracht, started in 1517 for the future Pope Adrian VI. The wharves are unfenced, so keep clear of the edge after dark.
Art and history
The Centraal Museum, at Agnietenstraat 1, opened in 1838 as the oldest municipal museum in the country. It shows paintings by Gerard van Honthorst, Hendrick ter Brugghen and Dirck van Baburen, and the Utrechts Schip, an oak cargo ship from about a thousand years ago. It is closed on Mondays.
Museum Catharijneconvent, at Lange Nieuwstraat 38, occupies a 15th-century monastery and holds medieval manuscripts and altarpieces, including work by Rembrandt and Jan van Scorel.
Remembrance
Three kinds of site call for a quieter pace. The Resistance Monument on Domplein, a bronze torch-bearer by Corinne Franzén-Heslenfeld from 1949, commemorates Utrecht residents killed in the resistance. Stolpersteine, brass stones in the pavement, are scattered across the old centre. The Spoorwegmuseum occupies Maliebaanstation, the point from which more than 1,200 Jewish residents of Utrecht were deported in 1942 and 1943, and the Monument voor het Joods Transport on its grounds was unveiled in 2005. On Maliebaan itself, the Dutch National Socialist movement had its offices at number 35, while Archbishop Johannes de Jong, a spiritual opponent of the Nazis, lived at number 40.
Practical
Utrecht is compact and flat. Cyclists use the red lanes at speed and have right of way, so walk on the pavement.
Read more: Walking Tours in Utrecht and the Netherlands three day itinerary .
Booking help
City tours can be searched on GetYourGuide . The ticket page for the design house is rietveldschroderhuis.nl .