Utrecht was found­ed by the Romans on the banks of the Old Rhine. Being the cen­tre of Dutch Catholi­cism since the 7th cen­tu­ry, the city has an unusu­al lay­out and a beau­ti­ful old town. In recent years, many new build­ings have been implant­ed in the old city, mak­ing Utrecht a dynam­ic mix.

The con­struc­tion of shop­ping mall Hoog-Cathar­i­jne in the 1970s meant a large-scale renew­al of the north­ern city cen­tre, while south of Dom­plein the small scale was preserved.