Utrecht Province Attractions

Provincial capital: Utrecht

(land area 133,109 hectares/328,779

Utrecht, the smallest province in the Netherlands, is centrally situated, between Noord- and Zuid- Holland in the west and Gelderland in the east. The province is traversed diagonally by the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, a ridge of hills which marks the boundary between the upland country (Hoog- Nederland) and the lowlands (Laag-Nederland). The west of the province is occupied by drained moorland and expanses of pastures.

In Roman times the course of the Rhine was different from what it is today. There was a good crossing at the point where Utrecht now stands, and accordingly the Romans built a castellum there which they called Traiectum ad Rhenum, the nucleus of the later trading town. After the Roman withdrawal Franks and Frisians settled in the region. The town became an archiepiscopal see around 700, and thereafter the archbishop gradually extended his authority over the present province of Utrecht, as well as to Overijssel and Drenthe. In 1456 Burgundy began to compete with the archbishop for predominance in the area. At the beginning of the 16th century the territory was incorporated in the duchy of Gelre, and in 1528 it passed into the hands of Spain.

Utrecht was one of the first provinces to break away from Spanish rule, and it was here that the northern provinces formed the Union of Utrecht in 1579. From 1672 to 1674 the area was occupied by the French; thereafter it was governed by a stadholder. After the French withdrawal from the Netherlands in 1813 Utrecht acquired its present status as a province of the Netherlands.

Apart from stock farming, agriculture plays a relatively small part in the economy of the province. Industry enjoyed a period of rapid development in the early 20th century and again after the Second World War. The chemical and metalworking industries - including some firms which moved here from Amsterdam - flourished along the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal, to the west of Utrecht. Other industrial concentrations developed at Amersfoort and, increasingly, at Veenendaal in the southeast of the province. Electrical engineering, woodworking, textiles and the foodstuffs industries are also of some importance. The traditional tobacco and textile industries of Veenendaal have almost died out.