The City Hall

Utrecht's city hall is two-faced. Classic at the front, the Stadhuisbrug side, and modern at the back, the Stadhuisplein side.
At the front you can still see very clearly that the city hall consisted of several buildings. The oldest stone building was House Lichtenberg, a trading house along the Rhine. At that time, the Oudegracht was not here yet.
The house grew into a city castle with several buildings, similar to the large medieval house Oudaen, further along the canal. One of these houses was House Hasenberg, on the corner of the Stadhuisbrug. In 1343 the court moved into this house. The cellars were used as a prison.
In the sixteenth century, when the council moved to the building complex by order of emperor Charles V, it was given the permanent function of city hall. City architect Willem van Noort designed a beautiful Renaissance facade for House Hasenberg. The buildings Klein and Groot Lichtenberg only received a couple of Renaissance decorations, including the balcony. Important decisions and verdicts were announced from that balcony.
In 1713, after a year and a half of negotiations, the Treaty of Utrecht, an international peace treaty that put an end to several religious wars and the issue of the Spanish succession to the throne, was signed in the city hall. In 1830, there was another thorough renovation. The brown-gray facade with its tall columns that was built that year is reminiscent of a Greek temple. And at the end of the last century, Spanish architect Enric Miralles went to work on the city hall. He tried to make one orderly building out of the maze of buildings that had been created over the centuries.
The city hall is still in use today. The city council, democratically elected by all Utrechters aged eighteen and older, decides what should happen in Utrecht. And it keeps an eye on whether the mayor and her aldermen are doing their jobs properly. Want to know how a city is run? You can go to one of the guided tours for children that are given regularly.
The city hall is also used for small-scale concerts and exhibitions, and in one of the two wedding halls you can say yes to your significant other.

Text: Mathijs Meinderts
Translation: Jitske Hell