The Neude and the Temple of Post and Telegraphy

On this corner of the square stands a building that has already been three different things, and the ground beneath it rather more.

From the end of the fourteenth century the sisters of the Saint Cecilia convent lived here, for well over two hundred and fifty years. After them came the national mint, where the money the city paid with was struck. Excavations here have turned up coins that people in Utrecht used for their daily shopping around the middle of the eighteenth century.

The mint came down for the main post office, built between 1919 and 1924 in the style of the Amsterdam School. Inside is a hall of parabolic arches, with statues representing the continents and brickwork shaped like carrier pigeons coming in to land. The building earned the nickname temple of post and telegraphy, and of that entire temple only the one hall was open to the public.

The post office left in 2011 and the building stood empty for years. The city council voted down a new library, and within days the owner of the old post office offered the place instead. Since 2020 you can walk in and go right through it.

We now walk along the Lange Viestraat to the Vredenburg.