The Roman Catholic church of St. Catherine is a Gothic edifice of the third ogival period, and was restored in 1880 at the expense of a devout Catholic of the city, named Van den Brink.
The walls are decorated in a polychromatic scheme, which is not beautiful, though undeniably striking. The jube, by Mengelberg of Utrecht, is distinctly good.
Utrecht possesses in the Aartsbisschoppelyk Museum an establishment unique among the museums of the world. Particularly it shows all branches of religious art, and is of great importance to all who study the art and architecture of the Netherlands.
Of the secular establishments one remarks the university which adjoins the cathedral. It dates from 1636, and has to-day five faculties.
In the palace, constructed for Louis Bonaparte during the Napoleonic overflow, is a magnificent library of 110,000 volumes and 1,500 MSS.[{343}]
The ancient academy, the arch-episcopal palace, the Palais de Justice, the Stadt Huis, the Paushuizen (Prefecture), the mint, with a rich numismatic collection, and the Association of Arts and Sciences complete the list of the city's notable monuments.
Leyden
With Leyden the Rhine may be said to take its leave of ancient civilization, though it only joins the briny waters of the North Sea at Katwyck, a dozen kilometres distant, after having formed a natural frontier for nearly eleven hundred kilometres, from its Alpine cradle in the canton of Grisons.
Anciently Leyden was the Lugdunum Batavorum of the Romans, and, according to the old-time historians, was the most ancient city of Holland. Later its name became Leithen, from which its present nomenclature is evolved.
Its great importance came with the thirteenth century and endured until the Spanish wars.