cathedral, originally dedicated to St. Martin, is
to-day a Protestant church. It was an outgrowth of the primitive church
founded in 630 by Dagobert I., and of an abbey established by St.
Willibrod.

The cathedral of St. Martin was rebuilt, after a fire in 1024, by Bishop
Adebolde, "in the presence of the Emperor Henry II. and many other great
personages," as the old chroniclers have it. In 1257 it was nearly
entirely rebuilt by the bishop then holding the see, Henri of Vianden,
but a great storm crushed in its nave in 1674, since which time the
faulty juncture of the various parts has been sadly apparent.

After the destruction of the nave, the choir and the transepts formed
practically the entire building, with the tower existing merely as a
dismembered and orphaned feature.

The tower was commenced in 1331 and completed in 1382. It rises from a
magnificently vaulted base. The lower portion is rectangular, but the
octagon which forms the upper stages and "pierced to the light of day,"
as the French have it, follows the best accepted style of its era. In
its way it is, although quite different, the rival of St. Ouen's "Crown
of Normandy" at Rouen.

There are 453 steps to be mounted if one cares to ascend to the
platform, 103 metres from the ground. One gets the usual bird's-eye
view, with this difference, that the glance of the eye seems to reach
out into an interminable distance, by reason of the general flatness of
the country. One sees, at any rate, quite all of the provinces of South
Holland, with the Zuyder Zee to the north, and a part of Guelderland and
North Brabant. The tower possesses also a fine set of chimes of
forty-two bells which is reminiscent of Belgium; but, unlike those in
the famous old belfry at Bruges, the chimes on the _Domkerk_ at Utrecht
do not ring out popular marches or the airs of popular songs.

The interior is so crowded with benches, similar to what English
churchgoing people know as pews, that its original aspect is somewhat
changed. Eighteen great pillars hold aloft the vaulting of the choir and
transepts.

[Illustration: UTRECHT _and Its_ CATHEDRAL]

A notable tomb in black and white marble is that of Admiral van Gent
(1676), and another is that of Bishop Georges d'Egmont (1549). In the
vault beneath the edifice were buried the viscera of Conrad II. and
Henry V., who died at Utrecht, and whose remains, with this exception,
were transported to Speyer.

A fine Gothic cloister c